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THE 






THEORY AID USE 



OF 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR 



MEASUREMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF TIME; 

BEING AN 

ACCOUNT OF THE OBIGIN AND USE OF THE CALENDAK ; OF ITS EEFOBMA- 
TION FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW STYLE ; AND OF ITS ADAPTA- 
TION TO THE USE OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH BY THE BEIT- 
ISH PARLIAMENT UNDER GEOBGE THE SECOND. 



BY THE 

KEY. SAMUEL SEAB UK Y, D.D., 

OP "BIBLICAL LEARNING," ETC., IN THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL 9EMINAKT 
OP THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



27? koriv 7] riiiEpa, Kai Y>rj koriv rj vOt;, 
"Ev Ka-TjpTico ifXiov nai ae"kfiv7]v 
2 v h-KoirjodQ nuvra rd opia rfjg yjjc, 
Qsqoc kcu cap 2 i) hrrotTjaag. 

-*al. Or. Ad Vat. Exem. fidem. 




Quid est quod arctum circulum 
Sol jam recurrens deserit? 
Christusne terris nascitur, 
Qui lucis auget tramitem? 

Prudentius. Octavo Kal. Jan. 



i) 



NEW YOEK: 

O T T, Y O TJ N O & CO., 

COOPER UNION, FOURTH AVENUE. 

1872. 



ft 3 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

POTT, YOUNG & CO 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Electrotyped by Smith & McDougal, 82 Beekman Street, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Derivation of the word Calendar — Origin of the Church Calendar 
— Divine Rule for the regulation and division of time — The 
Church Calendar conformed to it — Feasts Immovable and Mov- 
able — Its general design and method 1 



CHAPTER II. 

Time — The meaning of the word — Its measurement — The unit of 
measurement — Ancient account of the solar year — The canicular 
year of the Egyptians, and their knowledge of the leap year — 
Origin of the name dog-star, and the vulgar error respecting it — 
The week of seven days and its divine appointment — The civil 
and sacred year of the Hebrews — Cycles, their use and meaning of 
the word 



CHAPTER III. 

The Roman Calendar — Established by Numa Pompilius — Reformed 
by Julius Caesar — Names and capricious divisions of its months — 
Its method of computing time peculiar but not unnatural 24 



CHAPTER IV. 

The sacredness of the week of seven days — Importance of connecting 
the days of the week with the days of the year — The week-day let- 
ters — Their use in relation to the Immovable Feasts — Process of 
forming the Dominical Letter— How affected by the Leap-year — 
Origin of the term Leap-year 29 



IV C NTENT S. 



CHAPTER V. 

PAGE 

The Solar Cycle — Table of the Dominical Letters — Its explanation 
and use — Table showing the days of the month by the Dominical 
^Letters — Its explanation — Examples of its use — Table showing 1 the 
Dominical Letters according to the Old Style for four thousand two 
hundred years after Christ — Theory of the Table and its depend- 
ence on the Solar Cycle — Solar Regulars and Concurrents — Their 
meaning and use 40 



CHAPTER VI. 

The nature and place of the day intercalated in the Leap-year — Why 
called the Bissextile — The Calendar assigns but twenty-eight days 
to February, the 29th not being a Calendar day — Different Revi- 
sions of the Prayer Book concur in the same rule — Curious contro- 
versy as to the Feast of St. Matthias in Leap-year — Occasion of the 
controversy — The mandate of Archbishop Sancroft — Opinions of 
Drs. Nicholls and Wallis, Wheatly and Johnson — Conflicting 
usage and the result 53 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Lunar Cycle — Difficulties in adjusting the Lunar to the Solar 
time — Expedients adopted by the Romans, and by the Greeks — 
The discovery of Meton — Explanation of the Metonic Cycle and of 
the Julian Epacts — The Hebrews, their facilities for harmonizing 
the Solar and Lunar time — No Astronomical Cycle until after 
their dispersion 62 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Early observance of Easter in the Christian Church — The Quarto- 
deciman controversy — Subsequent disagreement as to what Sunday 
should be accounted Easter day — Causes of the want of uniformity 
— Decision of the Council of Nice — The Metonic Cycle used by the 
Alexandrian Church — Vacillation of the Roman Church, and its 
effect on the British Churches 73 



CHAPTER IX. 

Correspondence of St. Leo and Proterius — Rival schemes for finding 
Easter forever — The Victorian Period or Paschal Cycle — The 



CONTENTS. 



Dionysian Canon — Limits of the Paschal Week — The Calendar 
according to the Old Style completed — Reprint of the same, with 
directions for using it 83 



CHAPTER X. 

The two defects of the Old Style — Its defects no new discovery — Pre- 
liminary steps towards a reformation — Effected under Pope Gregory 
the Thirteenth — The reform not accepted in Great Britain — Conse- 
quent inconveniences of the Clergy — Captiousness of the Puritans. 10£ 



CHAPTER XI. 

The New Style of the Calendar — The principle underlying the re- 
form, not that of demonstrative science, but of traditionary expe- 
rience — Remedy for the first error of the Old Style — Method 
adopted to prevent the recurrence of the error — Practical perfec- 
tion of the New Style 117 



CHAPTER XII. 

Remedy for the second defect of the Old Style — Substitution of the 
Epacts for the Golden Numbers — The Reformed Lunar Calendar 
— Explanation of its structure 122 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Expanded Table of Epacts — Its design and construction — The 
Solar and the Lunar Equation — Further uses of the Table — Why 
the Lunar Equation is determined to some centuries rather than to 
others — Rules for making the Equations, when and how applied — 
Table for the Equation of the Epacts — The Perpetual Cycle of 
the Epacts 131 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The effect of the New Style on the order of the Dominical Letters — 
The Table of the Dominical Letters for the years of the Christian 
era under the New Style — Remarks — Revolution of the Letters — 
No schedule of the Letters like that of the Old Style for perpetual 
use — Schedule for the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth cen- 
turies respectively — Rationale of the rule given in the Prayer 



Vi CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Book for finding the Dominical Letter — And of the first General 
Table — Simplification of the rule by rejecting the centuries 153 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Paschal term — Unequal division of the Lunar month — The Pas- 
chal term one of twenty-nine days — Easter, one of thirty-five — 
Rules for finding the Epact of the year — Table of the Golden 
Numbers — Number of Direction — Gauss's formula for finding 
Easter — Rationale of the formula — Facility of its application 167 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Reasons for the reformation of the Calendar in Great Britain — The 
reform inaugurated by the 24th of George the Second — Preamble to 
the Act — Analysis of the Act — Appendix to the Act — Rejection of 
the Lunar Calendar — Adherence to the use of the Golden Numbers 
for finding Easter 187 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Review of the Tables in the Prayer Book for finding Easter — Mode 
of constructing the first Table— The Table from 1900 to 2199— Rule 
for finding the Dominical Letter to be substituted for the present 
rule — The Table to be provided for the year 2200, etc. — Reasons 
for the change and for the construction of the new Table — The 
General Tables II and III 199 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Dependence of History on the truth of the Mosaic Record — Depen- 
dence of civilized nations on the Calendar of the Church — 
Instanced in the abortive attempt of the French Republic to sub- 
stitute in its place the Calendar of Reason — Report of La Place — 
Remarks on the Report — Conclusion 212 



PREFACE 



FEW of us know what a treasure of ancient learning we 
possess in the Chukch Calendak. We refer to it regu- 
larly to find the Sunday, and perhaps the week-day lessons, 
and occasionally to find the Saints' days and other Holidays. 
We open a Church Almanac and see M., T., W., etc., set oppo- 
site to six days of the week, and, in odd contrast to these 
Heathenish abbreviations, we see also opposite to the Lord's 
day a certain letter which we are told is the Dominical or 
Sunday Letter for the year; but of the use of this Letter 
(except for indicating Sunday) and of its relation to the other 
letters in the Calendar, many of us are content to be ignorant ; 
and what we chance to know of the Golden Numbers and the 
Epacts, we owe, perhaps, more to our secular than to our 
Church training. 

Now I have no scruple against appropriating the names of 
Heathen deities to the days of the week, for I suppose that the 
best use which can be made of Heathen literature is to press 
it into the service of the Christian Church. But to use the 
Church designation for one day of the week, and the proper 
names for the other days, is at least incongruous ; and tends, 
moreover, to blind us to the fact that the letters appropriated 
in the Calendar to the several days of the week are indissolubly 
connected with one another, and are the elements of a system 
of chronology which, in the providence of God, has become 
curiously inwrought with the texture of ancient and modern _ MJ a a ** 
learning and with the pursuits of commercial and domestic 
life. 



P 



Vlll PREFACE. 

For these letters in our Calendar are clothed with remark- 
able functions, and are made subservient to very various and 
important ends. The merchant refers to a card in his count- 
ing-house in which they are made available for finding the 
day of the month; the historian uses them, in a different 
combination, in order to refer distant events to their proper 
years and to measure the intervals between them ; and the 
antiquary by means of them fixes with precision the dates of 
events of which only a shadowy outline is given in the original 
records ; none of them considering, some of them, perchance, 
not knowing, that for the ingenious artifices which they use, 
and which guide them with infallible certainty to the results 
which they seek, they are indebted to the first seven letters 
of the alphabet as used in the Calendar throughout the 
year to designate the several days of the week ; or rather to 
the fact that the Church takes these seven letters in their 
alphabetical order to be, what the proper names of the days 
are not, the invariable indices of the days of the year, and in 
their retrograde order to be the invariable indices of the. years 
for all time past, present, and to come. 

But there is another fact yet more remarkable, viz., that the 
unanimity of almost all civilized nations, in Europe and 
America, in* following one and the same standard of time, has 
been brought about, not by the discoveries of modern science, 
but by the ingenious and patient labours of ecclesiastics who 
have, from age to age, watched over the Church Calendar, and 
sought to bring it as nearly as possible to a state of perfection. 

I do not mean that the Church constructed her Calendar 
with a view to the attainment of these ends. Her chief design 
was, undoubtedly, to order her divine services, and in partic- 
ular to secure uniformity in the observance of Easter and the 
other moveable Feasts; and the results which I have men- 
tioned above were but the overflowings, so to speak, of the 
abundant care and skill which were expended in the prosecu- 



PREFACE. IX 

tion and accomplishment of her main purpose. I refer only 
to the fact that the Calendar has conferred the above named, 
and other kindred benefits, on all classes of society, as giving 
it some claim to universal attention and regard. And when 
one considers, moreover, the many sacred associations by 
which the Calendar links us to the memories of the past, and 
the marvellous prescience with which, in ihe matters whereof 
it treats, it spreads out before us, by methods nowise depend- 
ent on modern science, the events of the future, one is apt to 
be surprised that a structure, so venerable for its antiquity, so 
comprehensive in its design, so beneficial in its direct and 
indirect results, should awaken so little curiosity ; and that, 
too, in spite of the fact that it stands perpetually, as if to 
inspire reverence and challenge inquiry, in the very front of 
our Prayer Book. 

For this neglect, however, there are several reasons. Most 
men are content to accept results which they can verify by 
experiment without caring to investigate their causes, or to 
trace step by step the process by which they have been elabo- 
rated. .Persons of this description use the rules of the Calendar 
without a thought of the reasons on which they are founded ; 
much as the traveller crosses a river heedless of the mechanism 
of the bridge that bears him, so it but gives him a safe and 
easy passage. In the case of the clergy there is the further 
discouragement that the subject, although curious and im- 
portant, has yet no direct bearing on the practical duties of 
the Christian life. But after all, as a goodly number of our 
laymen show a laudable desire to look into the reasons of all 
Church requirements, and as many of our clergy are not so 
wholly absorbed in " the weightier matters of the law " as to 
have absolutely no leisure for its lighter requirements, we 
must seek for some other cause of the neglect of a study 
which is at least of as much importance as aesthetics $ad 
ritual accessories, and which has been considered, until of 



X PREFACE. 

late, a necessary preliminary in theological training. And the 
obvious explanation seems to be that they who, from motives 
either of duty or profit, would acquaint themselves with the 
structure of the Church Calendar, the ends at which it aims, 
and its methods of accomplishing them, have not the helps 
which they need to smooth their course and facilitate their 
study. As a Lectionary, and as a Chronicle of the Saints, the 
Calendar has been abundantly illustrated ; but these are only 
its subordinate uses, while in reference to its main and dis- 
tinctive end as a register and distributer of time, I know of no 
treatise which is specially devoted to it. Not that our divines 
have neglected it in the valuable works in which it naturally 
fell in their way ; but that they have treated it incidentally, 
and subordinately to other points, either of history or chrono- 
logy, which they had chiefly in view ; or if some have devoted 
one or two chapters exclusively to its explanation, they are 
found to be so brief as, in the estimation of students, to 
become obscure. Nicholls, Prideaux, Wells, and "Wheatley, 
and our own Dr. Jarvis, among others that might be named, 
have contributed much that is valuable ; but besides the diffi- 
culties just mentioned, there is another reason why these 
authors fail, on the subject under consideration, to meet the 
wants of our time ; and that is, that (with the exception of 
Dr. Jarvis) they wrote while the Old Style of the Calendar was 
in vogue in the English Church, and had therefore no suffi- 
cient inducement to explain the peculiarities of the New Style. 
Wheatley is no exception ; for the third edition (the first folio) 
of his " Rational Illustrations " was printed in 1720, and he 
himself exchanged this world for a better on May the 13th, 
1742, more than ten years before the Calendar in our Book of 
Common Prayer received its present form ; so that what pur- 
ports to be Wheatley's explanation of the new phase of the 
Calendar must have been compressed into the " Eational Illus- 
" trations " by subsequent editors. 



PREFACE. XI 

Hence probably it is that these authors fail to give us any 
adequate account of the solar and lunar equations, without a 
knowledge of which it is impossible to understand the reasons 
for shifting the Golden Numoers, or intelligently to carry 
into effect those changes in the Calendar which it will soon 
be our duty to make. So with some other of the directions 
which were first introduced into the English Calendar in 
1752 ; as, for example, the rule for finding the Dominical 
Letter — a rule which may indeed be easily verified by experi- 
ments, but the reasons of which no author that I have seen 
has been at the pains to unfold. 

The articles on the subject in our several Encyclopedias are 
indeed worth consulting, and I am indebted to them — to that 
of Dr. Kees in particular — for useful suggestions. But they 
are not fitted, as indeed they were not intended, to supply 
that want of the Church which I am desirous to meet. For, 
to pass by minor matters which it might seem invidious to 
mention, the excellent and learned contributors to these 
works, for the most part, write under the bias of modern 
science, and look at the Calendar from a point of view quite 
different from that of the Church. They cannot sympathize 
with — it is well if they do not scornfully reject — a traditionary 
system which disclaims demonstration, and which has no 
higher aim than to discover the celestial phenomena of the 
future by comparing them with the corresponding phenomena 
of the past. Hence they are prone to suggest " improvements " 
which, with a more liberal appreciation of the design of the 
Calendar, they might themselves confess to be alterations for 
the worse ; and to treat with supercilious criticism what they 
consider to be defects, apparently for no better reason than 
that they are the excellencies of a system different from their 
own. 

From these remarks may be gathered, in a general way, the 
motives which have prompted the present undertaking. I 



Xll PREFACE. 

have not written for the learned, having nothing original to 
propose. My aim has been twofold : first, to excite the curios- 
ity and to satisfy the inquiries of intelligent laymen in regard 
to one of the most venerable structures of the Church ; to set 
before them the motives in which it originated, the obstacles 
which it encountered, and the persevering labours which, age 
after age, overcame those obstacles and brought the Cal- 
endar to its completion. Secondly, to put into the hands of 
candidates for the Ministry and theological students a work 
which may, I hope, be found Useful in dispelling the mists in 
which the Calendar is commonly thought to be wrapped, in 
showing its value for the elucidation of some obscure contro- 
versies in the early Church, and in so explaining its construc- 
tion as to save them from the unscholarly habit of applying 
mechanically rules and directions which they have taken 
merely on trust, and of which they can give no better account 
than that on trial they have always found them to succeed. 
And these two ends, it seemed to me, might be united and 
best attained by a sort of historical sketch of the origin and 
changes of the Calendar and of the reasons for them. 

I must confess to another motive for publishing at this 
time. Before the end of the present century the Golden 
Numbers, which have retained their present place in our Cal- 
endar since the year 1752, must be shifted ; and as the shift- 
ing of the Golden Numbers will involve the necessity of can- 
celling several of our present Tables for finding Easter and 
substituting others in their place, I have thought it not unlikely 
that the whole subject might soon excite among us a larger 
share of attention than heretofore. The Calendar, as it now 
stands in our Book of Common Prayer, directs how the neces- 
sary changes are to be made at the end of the present century, 
and of every future century in which such changes will be 
required. But this arrangement of the Golden Numbers and 
the directions respecting it do not rest on the same authority 



PREFACE. Xlil 

as the other parts of the Calendar. The facts are in brief as 
follows : 

The Church Calendar, when it was brought to maturity, 
say A. D. 800, was the common property of the Western 
Church ; the British Church, and the Continental Churches, 
equally consenting in the use of it. At the time of the Befor- 
mation the Calendar remained unaltered in the English 
Church, and it was tacitly or expressly sanctioned at each 
authorized Eevision of the Prayer Book until and including 
that of the Savoy Conference in 1662. Of course I am speak- 
ing of the Calendar considered simply as a register of time ; 
the scriptural lessons which were added to it, and the Saints' 
days which were expunged, are matters with which I am here 
no otherwise concerned than to say, in passing, that I regard 
them as a part of that salutary reform which was brought 
about by the English Eeformation. The Calendar then of 
Great Britain and of Western Europe marked the changes of 
the moon by setting the Prime or Golden Number for the 
year opposite to the day of every month in that year on which 
a new moon occurred. In 1582, when the Calendar was 
reformed under Gregory the Thirteenth, the use of the Golden 
Numbers for this purpose was abolished, and the Calendar was 
so arranged that the Epact for the year always fell opposite to 
the day of the month on which there was a new moon. The 
Lunar Calendar was thus made perpetual, so as to answer for 
one century as well as another, without any shifting of the 
Golden Numbers. In 1752 the British Parliament adopted 
the Gregorian reform ; but in reducing it to practice they did 
two remarkable things. In the first place they abolished the 
whole of the Lunar Calendar except that portion of it which 
belongs to a part of the month of March and a part of the 
month of April ; and in the next place, they retained the use 
of the Golden Numbers for finding Easter ; and taking the 
Epacts as they were then adjusted to the Golden Numbers by 



XIV PREFACE. 

the Gregorian reformers, ordered them to be used until a new 
adjustment of them became necessary, and provided two 
" General Tables " for their readjustment in all future 
time. 

By thus insulating the Paschal Feast from the rest of the 
Lunar Calendar, the British Parliament seems to have emu- 
lated, as far as was consistent with Church legislation, the 
example of Julius Caesar, who entirely abolished the Lunar 
Festivals, and regulated all the solemnities of religion by the 
solar time alone; and by retaining the use of the Golden 
Numbers, the Parliament, without in the least facilitating the 
finding of Easter-day, deprived us of that feature of the 
reformed Calendar which constitutes its characteristic beauty 
and simplicity. The legislation of the Parliament, however, 
was intended chiefly for civil and commercial ends, and took 
in ecclesiastical reform by the way ; nor does it appear that 
the English Church ever sanctioned, in her corporate capa- 
city, the particular method of reforming the Calendar which 
the Parliament adopted, or that she has done more than 
informally and passively acquiesce in it. Such being the case, 
it is evident, I think, that that portion of our Calendar which 
relates to the way of finding Easter-day under the New Style, 
including the shifting of the Golden Numbers, and the special 
and general Tables for the same purpose, stands on a different 
footing from the rest of the Calendar, and might be recast 
without creating a precedent for altering a word in any other 
part of the Prayer Book. Without presuming to offer an 
opinion upon the expediency of such a course — which cer- 
tainly ought not to be pressed at the cost of that charity, 
"the very bond of peace and of all virtues," which our 
Easter is intended to quicken and enlarge — I have merely 
ventured in the ensuing treatise to bring the facts of the case 
to the attention of churchmen, and especially of those to 
whom the care of the Calendar is chiefly entrusted. 



CJ)e CjmrcJ) Calendar* 



CHAPTER I. • 

Derivation of the word Calendar — Origin of the Church Calendar — Divine 
Rule for the regulation and division of time — The Church Calendar 
conformed to it — Feasts Immovable and Movable — Its general design 
and method. 

THE design of the ensuing treatise is, in general, to 
give an account of the Church Calendar, of the 
changes through which it has passed, of the principles on 
which it is constructed, and of the ends which it is intended 
to subserve. 

A Calendar, in a large sense of the word, and as dis- 
tinguished from an almanac which is renewed from year to 
year, may be said to be a register for the permanent distri- 
bution of time, on astronomical principles, adapted to civil 
and secular affairs ; and a Church Calendar is further dis- 
tinguished by its reference to persons and matters of par- 
ticular importance to the Church. In the present treatise, 
however, I do not propose to consider the Calendar as a 
Lectionary for the guidance of the people in the use of the 
Scriptures, nor as a Kegister of the Saints and Martyrs to 
whose commemoration it is subordinated. I shall limit my 
inquiries to the Church Calendar ; and to it only so far as 
relates to the computation and distribution of time, and to 
the sacred purposes which such distribution is designed, to 
answer. 



2 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

The first day of each month was called by the ancient 
Komans the Calends, from a Greek word signifying to call, 
because on that day the people were called or summoned 
by the Pontifex into the Curia Calabra, and there informed 
of the holy days of the month. This practice was con- 
tinued until A. U. C. 450 ; when Caius Flavius, the curule 
aadile, for the better information of the people, caused the 
Fasti or Calendar to be hung up on a pillar in places of 
public resort. 

The Komans were accustomed to reckon interest by the 
month, and to collect it on the Calends or first day of each 
month. The custom of the Greeks was in some respects 
similar, but they did not use the word Calends to denote 
the time of payment ; and hence the witticism of Augus- 
tus Caesar,® " To pay on the Greek Calends/' for not to 
pay at all. From the custom of collecting interest on the 
Calends, the book of a Koman banker or capitalist contain- 
ing the names of his creditors, the money loaned, etc., was 
called his Calendarium or account-book. Moreover, public 
officers and rich men who rented houses or lands had their 
Calendaria or account-books showing the sums due to them 
and payable on the Calends of each succeeding month. 
Hence the Tristes Calendar of Horace, and the Celeres Cal- 
endar of Ovid ; for sad indeed is the Calends or pay-day for 
the miserable debtor, and too quickly for his comfort does 
it come. Hence also Seneca's Divitem putas cui magnus 
Calendarii liber ; you count the man rich whose Calendar 
shows a large rent-roll ; intimating that ivealth, in its orig- 
inal sense of well-being, is not to be measured by riches ; 
or as our English Platonist (Norris) puts the matter, Hap- 
piness is not a thing to be bought or sold by the acre. 

*• Cum aliquos nunquam solituros significare vult, ad Kal. Grcecas 
solituros ait. — Suetonius, lib. II, c. 87. 



THE APOSTLES AND MARTYRS. 3 

After the general diffusion of the G-ospel in the Koman 
Empire, the word Calendar began to be used by the Latin, 
as did the corresponding word MnvoXoyiov by the Greek 
Christians, to denote the Ecclesiastical Register in which 
were entered the names of the Apostles and Martyrs, and 
other great men famous for their piety, over against the 
days on which they were commemorated. For " That sev- 
1 era! Holidays were observed in the Church from the very 
i beginning of Christianity, or at least in the very first 
: ages," says Dr. Mcholls, "is a matter I think beyond 
1 dispute, as particularly the Feasts of the Nativity, Resur- 
1 rection, Pentecost, etc., which as they are mentioned by 
6 the most early writers in the Church, so they have been 
s esteemed by all antiquity, to have been of Apostolical 
1 observation. After these came into use the observation 
i of the days whereon Martyrs suffered ; one of the first 
1 instances whereof we have in the people of Smyrna, who 
c kept the anniversary day of the martyrdom of Poly carp. 
c Eus. lib. IY, cap. 14. And this happened A. D. 170. 
1 This practice of the Christians became more common in 
c Tertullian's time ; who says, That it was usual to have 
6 annual oblations, i. e. solemn prayers, upon the birthdays, 
i i. e. the martyrdoms. Annuas Oblationes fieri solere pro 
c Natalitiis. This institution, St. Basil says had a double 
1 cause of its original, That we may be incited to imitate 
i the zeal of those who have been constant in their Faith 
1 unto death ; as also, That men being exercised in the per- 
formance of those duties, might not have leisure to attend 
1 to the prof ane festivals of the Heathens. Bas. Asc. cap. 4. 
The following ages were likewise as forward in the cele- 
brating the festivals of the martyrs and holy men of their 
time ; so that at last it came to be so common, as not 
only made the observation of them very troublesome, but 



4 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

" occasioned them to crowd their Calendars with a set of 
"dead saints who, when they were alive, were not worthy 
" to be reckoned among wise men. But though they were so 
" forward in coining festivals for these modern saints, they 
" seemed long to have forgotten the Apostles themselves ; 
" they being first brought into our Calendar by one of our 
" English Councils, viz., that of Oxford, held under Stephen, 
" Archbishop of Canterbury, A. D. 1222. But upon the 
" Keformation our Church cast off all the festivals of the 
" modern martyrs, and retained only those of the Apostles 
" and some other few festivals which related to our Saviour." 

But besides this natural and laudable custom was another 
which was fundamental in the Christian Church, and which 
served to enlarge the scope of the Calendar. For the 
Christian Church was a reformation of the Jewish Church, 
and as it was essential to the one to observe the Passover 
in annual commemoration of the deliverance of the Israel- 
ites out of Egypt, so has it ever been an act of pious grat- 
itude in the other to observe the anniversary of the cruci- 
fixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the redemption 
of mankind. The fact that Easter, on wTiich many other 
feasts and fasts depend, never falls in two consecutive years 
on the same day of the year, made it necessary to inform 
the members of every church, year by year, of the particu- 
lar day on which it was to be observed. Hence the Cal- 
endar came to be a register of the movable as well as the 
immovable Holy Days of the Church ; and this, as we shall 
see hereafter, involved in process of time the addition to it 
of two other columns, the one containing the Golden Num- 
bers, the other the Sunday and week-day letters. 

The divine history of the creation informs us that God 
made two great lights ; the greater light to rule the day, and 
the lesser light to rule the night : and that God set them 



PRINCIPLE OF CONSTRUCTION. 5 

for times, and for seasons, and for days, and for years. 
Agreeably to the divine purpose, all nations have been ruled 
by the apparent motions of the sun and the moon in the 
adjustment and measurement of times and seasons. 

The Church has been governed by the same principle in 
the construction of her Calendar. Some of her Holy Days 
she has regulated exclusively by the course of the sun, and 
others also by the course of the moon. 

Hence the Calendar of necessity assumes two general 
divisions of time ; viz., solar and lunar, the latter of which 
is subordinated to the former and is regulated by it. 

The solar time consists of years, months, weeks and days. 
Of these, however, the month, as respects the feasts and 
fasts of the Church, is of no necessary account. It is 
merely a civil and not an ecclesiastical division, derived to 
us from Heathen Kome, and retained from dislike of need- 
less change, and for purposes of convenience. 

We use the expression lunar time to denote the course 
and changes of the moon ; as we speak of the time of hu- 
man life from infancy to youth, and from youth to old age 
and death ; although, as we shall presently see, all time, 
the lunar time not excepted, is measured by the apparent 
or real motion of the sun. The period which revolves from 
one new moon to another, is now commonly called a lunar 
month , and sometimes a lunation. In our Calendar, how- 
ever, until it was adapted to the Gregorian reform under 
George the II, this period of time was always called a 
moon, so as not to be confounded with the civil month. 
Such, indeed, was the old English usage, a vestige of which 
still remains in the familiar compounds of honey-moon and 
harvest-moon / the name of the period in which the lumin- 
ary revolves being taken, in our own language as in some 
other languages, by a common figure of speech, from the 



b THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

luminary itself. And this, particularly in treating of the 
Calendar, seems for several reasons to be the better desig- 
nation ; but whatever name we give to the period, it may 
prevent confusion of thought to observe in the outset that 
its duration is always estimated and expressed in divisions 
of solar time. 

Corresponding to this division is that of the Holy Days 
of the Church, into those which are immovable and those 
which are movable. 

The Immovable Feasts are those which always occur, each 
in its turn, on one and the same day of the year. Of these it 
is to be noted that while they occur severally on the same day 
of the year, they may, and indeed must for several years 
in succession, fall on different days of the week ; as, for 
example, the Feast of the Nativity, which, though always 
kept on the same day of the year, the 25th of December, 
yet falls for several successive years on different days of the 
week. 

The Movable Feasts and Fasts are those which follow 
the course of the moon. Of these the principal is Easter-day, 
which is deservedly called the Queen of Feasts, not only 
because of the importance of the event which it commem- 
orates, but also because a large number of Holy Days, some 
of which precede and others follow it, are dependent on it 
for the time of their celebration. They are said to be mov- 
able because, following the course of the moon, they shift 
their places in the Calendar, which is regulated by the 
course of the sun. And with regard to these Movable 
Feasts and Fasts it is to be noted that, although they fall 
on different days of the year, they are yet, at least the chief 
of them, tied up to particular days of the week ; the events 
which are commemorated by them, viz., the Crucifixion of 
our Blessed Lokd, His lying in the grave, His Kesurrec- 



EAST TO BE UNDERSTOOD. 7 

tion and Ascension, having given even to the week-days on 
which they occurred an indelible and perpetual hold on the 
hearts of His followers. 

There can be no doubt that the construction of the Cal- 
endar in both these respects has been the fruit of patient 
thought and elaborate calculation, and the fact that it gives 
us only results, without an explanation of the process by 
which the results are arrived at, invests it with a dry and 
repulsive appearance. Hence it comes to pass that many 
learn to use the Calendar without an attempt to understand 
it, as thinking that the principles on which it is founded 
are beyond their reach, or at least not to be mastered with- 
out an inconvenient degree of study and application. But 
as it is not necessary for one to be an architect in order to 
trace the progress of a cathedral from its rude beginnings 
to its magnificent completion, and to understand the prin- 
ciples on which its parts are adjusted and its proportions 
maintained, so neither is it necessary for one to be either an 
astronomer or a mathematician in order to understand the 
rationale of the Church Calendar, and the process by which 
its results are obtained. This is all which I undertake to 
show : and if those who happen to be unacquainted with 
the subject will give me their attention, I think I may 
promise them in return some curious information. 



CHAPTER II. 

Time — The meaning of the word — Its measurement — The unit of meas- 
urement — Ancient account of the solar year — The canicular year of 
the Egyptians, and their knowledge of the leap-year — Origin of the 
name dog-star, and the vulgar error respecting it — The week of seven 
days and its divine appointment — The civil and sacred year of the 
Hebrews — Cycles, their use and meaning of the word. 

OUR notion of Time is formed from the succession of 
events. One event happens and after that another ; 
or the same event recurs : and Time is the measure of the 
interval between them. But succession depends on motion, 
and of all motion that of the heavenly bodies is the most 
uniform and regular. The sun rises, and after an interval 
he rises again. We behold the new moon, and after it has 
waxed and waned we again see its crescent form in the 
west. We observe the sun at the vernal equinox, and watch 
his march through the zodiac, and the changing seasons 
that attest his progress, until he returns again to the point 
from which he started. Our faith in the uniformity of na- 
ture, fortified by experience, leads us to believe that the 
heavenly bodies will continue to move hereafter by the same 
laws and with the same regularity as they have moved 
heretofore ; and hence we conceive of these intervals as 
happening in the future as well as in the past. Now Time 
is the measure of these intervals ; or to give the precise and 
unsurpassed definition of the Stagyrite, it is apifybg klvtj- 
aeog Kara rb irporepov teat to vorspov, a measure of motion in 
reference to the past and in reference to the future. 

But we cannot discourse intelligibly about the measure 



THE NATURAL DAT. 9 

of time or motion without a standard of measurement. 
We may have indeed a vague notion that some intervals 
are larger than others, but we cannot describe the excess of 
one interval over another, nor even represent it clearly to 
our own mind, unless we have a unit by the repetition of 
which we can tell how many times the one interval exceeds 
the other. Hence in everything which is capable of meas- 
urement we adopt a standard unit whereby to measure ; 
and as it is necessary that men should agree upon a unit, 
so the particular unit on which they so agree, is found for 
the most part to be one which nature itself has suggested 
and moved them to adopt. Thus in the measurement of 
place, or of length and breadth, the foot, the hand, the 
nail, and the elbow (cubitum), have either furnished or sug- 
gested a conventional unit ; as Moses when he describes the 
ark tells us that its length was three hundred cubits, its 
breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Nor as 
respects time, have we far to seek for what we want ; for it 
is not a little remarkable that men of all ages and countries 
have concurred in adopting the day as the unit for the 
measurement of time. By the day I here mean the natu- 
ral day, or what the Greeks call wxOrjpepov : that is to say, 
the time which intervenes between the sun being in the 
meridian and being next in the meridian again. 

The reason of this universal agreement is no doubt to be 
found in the fact that the day or nycthemeron is the small- 
est natural division of time which is of uniform duration. 
Day and night, taking the words to denote the interval 
from sunrise to sunset, and from sunset to sunrise, are in- 
deed natural divisions, but they vary in duration in differ- 
ent climates, and in the same climate at different seasons 
of the year. But not so with the natural day, or the inter- 
val from noon to noon, or from midnight to midnight, for 



10 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

this is found from experience to be of average length 
throughout the year. 

The division of the natural day into hours, or twenty- 
four parts of equal length, is arbitrary, and as far as I 
know of uncertain origin. No such division is recognized 
in the Old Testament ; and the hours mentioned in the 
New Testament, and borrowed probably by the later Jews 
from the Eomans, were divisions of the day from sunrise 
to sunset, and consequently varied in length at different 
seasons of the year and in different latitudes at the same 
season. Thus the Komans had their summer hours and 
their winter hours ; the former of which (supposing the 
days in summer to be fifteen and those in winter eight 
hours long) would be equal to an hour and a quarter, and 
the latter to forty minutes of our time. This division, 
however, viz., of the day into twenty-four equal parts, in- 
cluding the subdivision of the hours into minutes, seconds, 
etc., to whomsoever we owe it, conduces very much to pre- 
cision of thought and language, and is of the greatest im- 
portance. 

The next natural division of time is the lunar month — 
sometimes, as in the Church Calendar, called simply the 
moon, or the interval from the (paaig or first appearance of 
the moon after its conjunction with the sun to its next ap- 
pearance ; or as is commonly said, from one new moon to 
the next. This interval would naturally be computed in 
days and the fractional parts of a day. The length of a 
synodical month, or the interval from one conjunction of 
the moon with the sun to its next conjunction, is twenty- 
nine days, twelve hours, and forty-four minutes, or very 
nearly twenty-nine days and a half; and from this the 
length of the illuminative month, or the space from the 
first appearance of one new moon to the next, nearly and in 



ANCIENT SOLAR YEAR. 11 

the long run entirely agrees. Hence among some ancient 
nations the lunar year was made (first by Solon, as Arch- 
bishop Potter tells us,) to consist of alternate months of 
twenty-nine and thirty days each. 

The seasons, or the intervals between the vernal and au- 
tumnal equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices, are 
also natural divisions of time ; but the largest natural di- 
vision, and that which has been chiefly used for the pur- 
poses of computation, is the Solar Year, or the interval of 
the sun's revolution from one point in the ecliptic — say that 
which it holds at the autumnal equinox — to the same point 
again. The duration of the year was originally estimated 
to be three hundred and sixty days, an estimate to which 
the ancients were probably led, or in which at least they 
were confirmed, by tracing the course of the sun through 
the twelve signs of the zodiac, which together make a cir- 
cle of three hundred and sixty degrees. But whatever 
were the reasons, the fact is certain, that the year was orig- 
inally computed to consist of three hundred and sixty days, 
or twelve solar months of thirty days each, and that five 
days were afterwards added to the three hundred and sixty 
for the sake of greater accuracy. This appears from the 
history of the flood (Gen. vii, 11, compared with Gen. viii, 
3 and 4), when the time from the beginning of the flood to 
the resting of the ark on Ararat is declared to be precisely 
five months, and these five months are explained by the 
sacred writer to consist in all of one hundred and fifty days ; 
which is thought by some to show that the ancient Egyptian 
year was reckoned to be twelve months of thirty days each. 
The same year was used for the purposes of sacred compu- 
tation long after the true length of the year was more ac- 
curately ascertained. For the prophet Daniel speaks of a 
time, times, and the dividing of time : and what he means 



12 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

by these expressions we learn from St. John, who refers to 
the same divisions under different names. For what Daniel 
calls a time, times, and half a time, St. John calls in one 
place forty-two months, and in another place twelve hun- 
dred and sixty days (Daniel xii, and Kev. xi and xii), 
which shows that the year of Daniel was equal to three 
hundred and sixty days. For 

a time = 360 d., 
times = 720 d., 
and a half time = 180 d., are equal to 

1260 days, 
or forty-two months of thirty days each.* 

Profane history also points to the same conclusion. 
Bishop Cumberland, in his Sanchoniatho, quotes Syncellus 
to the effect that Assis or Arcles, the Hercules of the Phe- 
nicians, added five days to the year, which was before reck- 
oned by the Egyptians to be three hundred and sixty days. 
" This was done/' the Bishop adds, " before Moses wrote ; 
"and therefore I presume he, being bred skillful in all 
"Egyptian learning, understood and made use of this 
" exacter year in expressing the lives of the patriarchs."f 
The addition of the five days is also intimated in the fable 
which Plutarch, in his celebrated treatise He Iside et Osi- 
ride, reports from the Egyptian priests ; viz., that Mercury, 
playing at dice with the Moon, got from her a seventy- 
second part of the year (^-=5), which he afterwards 
added to the three hundred and sixty days. These, he 
adds, were the days anciently called EpagomenGe, or inter- 
ccdary, on which the feasts of the gods were celebrated. 

Mercury was the same with the Egyptian Thoth or 
Athotes, the son of Misraim, and a grandson of Ham. Hence 

* See Bedford's Chronology. 

f Cumberland's Sanchoniatho, p. 297. Con. also p. 168 and p. 462. 



THE FIVE INTERCALARY DAYS. 13 

the meaning of the fable seems to be that when Ham, the 
son of Noah, settled in Egypt, the year was counted to 
consist of three hundred and sixty days. " But in the 
•' space of about one hundred and fifty years," says Mr. 
Bedford, " the sun had twice shifted its course, or the be- 
ginning of the year had passed twice through all the 
" signs of the ecliptic, and come to the place where it was 
" at first ; i. e., the Egyptian year had in this space of time 
"retrograded to the Julian. Which Mercury or Thoth the 
"king of Egypt perceiving, he added five days or epago- 
" mence, that so the year might be fixed for the future." 

Whether the above explanation as to the time and man- 
ner in which the change was made be satisfactory or not, it 
is at least certain that the year was computed to consist of 
three hundred and sixty-five days from a very remote period 
of antiquity, and that this result was obtained by the addi- 
tion of fiYQ days to three hundred and sixty days. Lepsius, 
one of the recent investigators of the monuments of ancient 
Egypt, on the evidence of a grotto at Benihassan, refers 
its origin to the twelfth dynasty, that is, before the inva- 
sion of the shepherds. That this year, consisting of twelve 
months of thirty days, with five days added, was in use 
among the Chaldeans and Egyptians, from whom Abraham 
and Moses respectively received it, there seems abundant 
reason to believe. Nor could the Israelites, after their set- 
tlement in the land of Canaan, have entirely lost it : for 
though we should admit with Dean Prideaux (in opposi- 
tion to Kepler and Archbishop Usher) that their year was 
made up of months purely lunar, yet it must be granted 
that they were careful, by intercalating their months, to 
adjust them to the solar standard. The era of Nabonnassar 
(otherwise called Belesis, a Babylonian priest skilled in 
astronomy,) — an era not much used by historians, but fa- 



14 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

mous among the old astronomers as having been used by 
the Chaldeans and Egyptians — was settled among the As- 
syrians as early as 746 B. C. ; and after that it is certain 
that the solar year of three hundred and sixty-five days 
continued in use until the time of Julius Csesar ; who, by 
the advice of Sosigenes, the Egyptian astronomer to whom 
he entrusted the reformation of the Calendar, substituted 
three hundred and sixty-five and one-fourth days, instead 
of three hundred and sixty-five days, as a more accurate 
measurement of the year. This is still assumed to be the 
length of the year in the Calendar of the Church, and of 
all civilized nations ; and the expedients which have 
been devised in modern times, to compensate for its con- 
fessed want of precise accuracy, make it, as we shall see, 
both improbable and undesirable that any change with a 
view to greater exactness will be hereafter attempted in the 
Calendar. 

Not that this estimate of the length of the year was a 
new discovery in the time of Julius Cassar ; for it had been 
before known, not only to the Greek astronomers, but also 
to the ancient Egyptians, that the true year exceeded three 
hundred and sixty-five days by nearly six hours. Hippar- 
chus, " the patriarch of astronomy/' who flourished between 
160 and 125 B. C, computed the length of the tropical 
year to be three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, 
fifty-five minutes and twelve seconds ; and not only among 
the Greeks and Komans, but among the ancient Egyptians, 
the common year, to distinguish it from the true year, was 
called annus vagus, or the vague year, because the feasts 
were observed to travel through it ; those appointed for the 
summer coming in lapse of time to be held in the winter, 
and those appointed in the autumn to be held in the spring. 
And what we call the bissextile or leap year, the ancient 



THE CANICULAR YEAR. 15 

Egyptians used to call the Sothiac or Canicular year, be- . 
cause they discovered the necessity of intercalating one day 
in four years by the heliacal rising of the dog -star. For 
the year consisting, as was at first supposed, of three hun- 
dred and sixty-five days, was found by the rising of this 
star to advance one day in four years, and at the expiration 
of fourteen hundred and sixty-one years to return to the 
point originally fixed for the beginning of Thoth, the first 
month of the Egyptian year ; thus showing that the year 
should be reckoned to consist not of three hundred and 
sixty-five but of three hundred and sixty-five and one- 
fourth days. Thus, by observation of this star, the Egyp- 
tians were led to form their great canicular year, and their 
greatest canicular year, which consisted of four times three 
hundred and sixty-five and one-fourth common years — that 
is of fourteen hundred and sixty-one years. 

The Egyptians had been taught by long observation and 
experience that as soon as the star of which we are speak- 
ing became visible in their country, the Nile would overflow 
its banks ; and they accordingly, on its appearance, re- 
treated to their terraces, where they remained until the in- 
undation had subsided. Hence they gave this star the name 
of their river Sihor — the Nile ; and they pictured it as a 
dog, and sometimes as a man with a dog's head, because 
the star, like a faithful watch-dog, warned them to avoid 
the danger of the inundation ; thus attributing to the star, in 
their emblematic way, the properties of the Thotes, Tfiot or 
Sothis, which was the word in their language for the Latin 
canis and the English dog. All this, however intelligible, 
was " to the Greeks foolishness" ; among them Sihor, or Si- 
rius, as they wrote the word, and the dog-star were all one ; 
physical properties were substituted for emblematic ; and 
to the dog-star was ascribed, as its name required, the 



16 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

power of intensifying the heat of the season, and shedding 
a baleful influence on animated nature in general, and par- 
ticularly on the canine race. Such is a probable account 
of the origin of one of those " vulgar errors " which have 
been embalmed in the Pseudodoxia Epidemica with prodi- 
gal stores of learning, for the admiration of posterity.'-''" 

It is pertinent to ask whether the description of the 
canicular year of the Egyptians, which is given above, and 
which has been transmitted to us by ancient Greek authors 
who travelled in Egypt and conversed with the priests, is 
confirmed by the late discoveries in Egyptian archaeology. 
On this subject Mr. Kenrick gives us the following infor- 
mation : 

" One of these Sothiac periods came to a conclusion in 
historic times ; expiring in A. D. 138-9. Beckoning back- 
ward fourteen hundred and sixty years, we come to 1322 
B. C. This does not absolutely prove that it was in use 
1322 B. C, or was then first established ; but it has been 
thought that the monuments supply this deficiency. The 
period is called Sothiac, because the time assumed for its 
commencement was when Sirius or the Dog-star, called by 
the Egyptians Sothis, and consecrated to Isis, rose helia- 
cally on the first day of Thoth, the first month of the 
Egyptian fixed year, the 20th of July of our reckoning. 
This phenomenon appears to have been fixed upon from 
the brilliancy of the star, which would make it more con- 
spicuous ; and its coincidence with the commencement of 
the inundation, which occurred about this time, made it 
still more appropriate as the starting-point of an Egyptian 
period. Now in the astronomical monument at the Karne- 

* Confer. Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrse, Book I, Chap. VI. Brady's 
Clavis Calendaria, Vol. II, p. 82, and Brown's Pseudodox. Epidem. or Vul- 
gar Errors, Book IV, Chap. XIII. 



BEGINNING OF T HE P AT R I AR C HA L YEAR. 17 

seion, in the middle of the vacant space between the months 
Mesori and Thoth, is a figure of Isis — Sothis. It is in- 
ferred that this monument was erected in commemoration 
of the commencement of a Sothiac period, and the chro- 
nology of Egyptian history suits well enough with the date 
of the work, which belongs to the age of Kameses II or 
III. Though the evidence of the monument is not decisive 
of the year, there is nothing improbable in the supposition 
that the true length of the year was known, and a period 
established for bringing the vague and the true year into 
harmony, in the latter part of the fourteenth century before 
the Christian era ; and astronomical calculation shows that 
Sirius rose heliacally at Heliopolis on the 20th of July in 
the year 1322."* 

The course and changes of the moon would naturally 
lead men from the beginning to the observance of lunar 
months ; and we have reason to believe that under the pa- 
triarchal as well as under the Mosaic dispensation, the new 
moon was a time of religious solemnity. But this is by 
no means inconsistent with the account which we have 
given of the use of the solar year and months. The first 
full moon after the autumnal equinox was probably the be- 
ginning of the patriarchal year, the most ancient nations 
having made this period the commencement of the year : 
and the observance of the full moons that succeed one 
another between one autumnal equinox and the next, is so 
natural and obvious a division of time that it seems quite 
impossible it should have been neglected. Equally proba- 
ble is it, however, that men would soon perceive the neces- 
sity of adjusting the lunar months to the solar year. For 
the time of the equinox, when the sun rises and sets at the 
cardinal points of the East and West, and when the day 
* Kenrick's Ancient Egypt, Vol. I, p. 281. 



18 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

and night are of equal length, was too marked not to be 
noted ; and when men saw that twelve lunar months fell 
short of the interval between one autumnal equinox and 
the next, and that thirteen months exceeded it ; and when 
"they observed, moreover, that the lunar month could not 
be measured by a whole number of days, they would natu- 
rally seek for some expedient whereby these irregularities 
could be harmonized. And as the space of twelve lunar 
months was nearer to the measure of a solar year than any 
other number, and as thirty is a more tractable number for 
the days of the month than twenty-nine (between which 
two numbers the truth lies), it is altogether probable that 
the patriarchs would soon learn to adjust both their lunar 
years and lunar months to the solar standard. 

The week is, I apprehend, an arbitrary and not a natural 
division of time ; of divine appointment and not of human 
contrivance. Its very great antiquity is beyond dispute : 
and if it had been of human origin it would more probably 
have consisted of eight days than of seven; the number 
of days in the year (not counting the five added days which 
were reckoned sacred among the most ancient nations, and 
so in a manner separated from the rest of the year,) being 
exactly divisible by eight. Or if it be thought to be a di- 
vision of the month suggested by the four changes or quar- 
ters of the moon, it would have been in this case quite as 
likely to consist of eight days as of seven. Moreover, the 
fact that a week of eight days (and such a week was actu- 
ally used by the old Komans*) was an aliquot part of the 
primitive solar year, would naturally, in case of doubt, 

* Mr. Browne, in his Ordo Seculorum, pp. 457, 458, tells us that the old 
Romans had a "week" which "consisted of eight days; the farmers 
"worked seven days, and on the eighth (in the Latin idiom nono quoque 
" die) went into the city to market, and to acquaint themselves with city 
" affairs." 



CIVIL YEAR OF THE HEBREWS. 19 

have inclined men to adopt it rather than a week of seven 
days. That the days of the week were called among many 
ancient nations after the names of the seven planets, is 
readily admitted ; but this, far from proving its human 
origin, rather proves the reverse ; for surely the week must 
have existed before men ever thought of giving names to 
its days. Moreover, all attempts to explain the origin of 
the week on natural causes are purely conjectural ; but why 
resort to conjecture when the divine appointment of one 
day in seven, and the reason of the appointment are plainly 
recorded in Holy Writ ? The fact of this divine appoint- 
ment, handed down by tradition from our first parents to 
Moses, and by him committed to writing, is, as it seems to 
me, the sufficient and the only satisfactory explanation of 
the origin of this division of time. It was simply the force 
of truth which extorted from Delambre the confession, 
that " As the week forms neither an aliquot part of the 
" year, nor of the lunar month, those who reject the Mosaic 
"record will be at a loss to assign to it an origin having 
"much semblance of probability." 

The Hebrews may be said to have had two years, the 
civil and the sacred. In common with most ancient nations 
they began the civil year, which was a solar year of three 
hundred and sixty-five days, at the autumnal equinox. 
The commencement of the year at this time is fancied by 
some to have been suggested by the cessation from the labours" 
of agriculture and the ingathering of the fruits of the 
earth. But surely if nature suggests any season for the 
beginning of the year, it is the time of the winter solstice, 
when the sun begins to revive and increase in power, or of 
the vernal equinox, when the vegetable and animal creation 
are awakening, as it were, from the torpor of death and en- 
tering on a new life. Indeed, the commencement of the 



20 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

year at the autumnal equinox, when the emblems of decay 
and death begin to show themselves, seems to me to be so 
unnatural that I would much rather ascribe its prevalence 
among ancient nations to the traditionary belief that the 
creation of the world was completed at that season. 

The sacred year of the Hebrews began at the vernal 
equinox, and was a lunar year consisting of twelve lunar 
months, to which was added a thirteenth month once in 
three years, or more exactly seven times in nineteen years, 
in order to adjust the lunar to the solar year. This begin- 
ning of the sacred year, in marked contrast to the Egyp- 
tian custom, was instituted by Moses in commemoration 
of the deliverance of the Hebrews out of Egypt. From 
the Hebrews it passed to the Christian Church. It is at 
least certain that in Great Britain the sacred year from the 
twelfth century, and the civil year from the fourteenth cen- 
tury, began on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25th, 
and that this regulation had the force of law until A. D. 
1752, when it was abolished by the same statute which es- 
tablished the Gregorian reform in the British dominions. 

Of the minor divisions of time it is only necessary to say 
that they are fractional parts of the day. By assuming the 
day (nycthemeron) as the unit, and dividing it into hours, 
and these hours into minutes, the minutes into seconds, 
etc., we are enabled to express every other portion of ascer- 
tained time with the greatest possible precision. Do we 
inquire, for example, how long a time it takes for the moon 
to revolve around the earth, or the earth around the sun ? 
The answer in either case is given in days, hours, minutes, 
etc. ; that is to say, we assume the day as the unit of meas- 
urement, and counting the number of these units that in- 
tervene from one new moon to the next, or from one vernal. 



INADEQUACY OF HUMAN NUMBERS. 21 

equinox to the next, we give the answer as nearly as we 
can ascertain it, in these concrete units and their fractional 
parts ; in other words, in days, hours, minutes, etc., to the 
greatest imaginable degree of exactness. 

The day, however, though the best unit that can be as- 
sumed for the measurement of time, is found to be incom- 
mensurable with every other natural division of time. In 
other words, neither the solar year, nor the solar month, nor 
the lunar year, nor the lunar month, can be measured in days 
without the use of fractions. This difficulty, like the relation 
of the diameter of the circle to its circumference, is founded 
in the constitution of things, and therefore impossible to be 
removed. The embarrassment which it must cause in the 
adjustment of the lunar to the solar time is at once ob- 
vious. If the sun passed through one of the twelve signs 
of the ecliptic in the same time that the moon revolves 
around the earth, so that twelve lunar months would be 
equal to one year, the difficulty would not exist. But when 
we consider that the solar year consists (according to Mayer) 
of 365d. 5h. 48' and 42 -J-", while the lunar synodical month 
consists of 29d. 12h. 44' 3" and ll"', we cannot but con- 
sider with a feeling of awe that though GrOD " ordereth all 
"things in measure and number and weight/' * yet that 
his measure is not as our measure, nor his numbers capable 
of expression in human formulas. 

In fact, when we come to calculate and adjust the mo- 
tions of the heavenly bodies so as to adapt them for a series 
of years to the purposes of human life, we find ourselves 
beset with difficulties and embarrassments which only the 
collective observation and experience of many centuries 

* Book of Wisdom, xi, 20. 



22 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

have enabled us, and after all only approximately, to 
remove. 

One means of relief from these perplexities is found in 
the Cycle; a word of Greek origin, which means a circle , 
but which is used in chronology to denote a portion of time 
at the end of which events and phenomena return exactly 
or very nearly to the same position in which they were at 
the beginning of it. In every complete revolution of a 
wheel on its axis, we see that the several points of the 
wheel, though they vary their position during the revolu- 
tion, are at the end of it found in the same place as at first. 
So when a course of phenomena or events is discovered 
constantly to repeat itself within a definite portion of time, 
this portion of time is called a cycle ; and one of the ad- 
vantages of the cycle in chronological computations is that 
it enables the computist to rid himself of fractions, and 
adjust the divisions of time in whole numbers. On the 
supposition, for example, that the solar year consists of ex- 
actly three hundred and sixty-five days, and the lunar 
month of exactly twenty-nine and one-half days, and that 
consequently every lunar year is eleven days shorter than a 
solar year, it would be found that eight solar years and 
eight lunar years (with three months, two of twenty-nine 
days and one of thirty days, intercalated) are exactly com- 
mensurate : either period consisting of exactly two thousand 
nine hundred and twenty days. The supposition, though 
inaccurate, may serve to show, in passing, the nature of a 
cycle, and one of the advantages to be derived from it. 

The whole structure of the Church Calendar is built on 
cycles — the solar cycle of twenty eight years, and the lunar 
cycle of nineteen years ; and the combination of the two 
in one period of five hundred and thirty-two years, com- 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 23 

monly called the Paschal cycle. These come next in order 
to be explained ; but as the Koman method of computing 
time passed into the use of the Western Church, and is 
sanctioned by the last Kevision of our Common Prayer 
Book, it may be well to extend these introductory remarks 
so as to include a chapter on the Boman Calendar. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Roman Calendar — Established by Numa Pompilius — Reformed by 
Julius Caesar — Names and capricious divisions of its months — Its 
method of computing time peculiar but not unnatural. 

BEFOKE the time of Numa Pompilius the Eoman 
year was divided into ten months, containing in all 
three hundred and four days. Such a year coincides neither 
with the revolution of the earlh around the sun, nor with 
ten revolutions of the moon ; and yet Niehbuhr is of 
the opinion that by means of intercalation and a cycle of 
one hundred and ten years, the ancient Italian nations in- 
sured greater accuracy in their calendar than was attained 
by the Julian method. Be this as it may, Numa divided 
the year into twelve lunar months, and introduced a system 
of intercalation by means of which, on every four and 
twentieth year, the days of the lunar coincided with those 
of the solar year. 

Why the year before the time of Numa was divided into 
ten rather than any other number of months, it is difficult 
to say. Ovid gives us our choice of three reasons : the 
first because men used anciently to count from the number 
of their fingers, and the third because the multiplication of 
units is expressed up to ten in simple numbers, and above 
that in numbers compounded with ten. For the second 
reason I refer the reader to the original, merely venturing 
to remark that in ascribing the event mentioned in the sec- 
ond line to the tenth month, the poet may have reckoned 



NAMES OF THE MONTHS. 25 

the month to consist of twenty-eight days, or the tenth 
part of two hundred and eighty days, which is the period 
of child-bearing in women.* Having told us that the year 
anciently consisted of ten months, Ovid adds : 

Seu quia tot digiti per quos numerare solemus, 

Seu quia bis quino fcemina mense parit, 
Seu quod ad usque decern numero crescente venitur, 

Principium spatiis sumitur inde novis. 

The old Koman year "began with the month of March, 
traces of which beginning are still found in the names of 
September, October, November and December, which were 
originally so called because they were the seventh, eighth, 
ninth and tenth months of the year. For the same reason 
July and August were anciently called Quintilis and Sex- 
tilis, though their names were afterwards changed in com- 
pliment to Julius and Augustus Csesar. The two months 
added by Numa were January and February, and these 
were placed at the end of the year, the beginning being in 
March. 

Of the changes made in the Calendar in its reformation 
under Julius Cassar, there were two which have a special 
bearing on the subject of which we are treating. In the 
first place, the solar year was then first made by law to con- 
sist of three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours : 
the supernumerary hours, amounting to one day in four 
years, being provided for by causing the sixth of the Cal- 
ends of March, or as we would say the 24th of February, 
to be repeated every fourth year. In the next place, the 
lunar year was abolished, and the solar year was substi- 
tuted in its place ; the consequence of which was that the 
months which had been before observed as natural divisions 

* See Sir George Cornwall Lewis on " The Astronomy of the Ancients," 
page 21. 



2G THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

of time — as being regulated by the course of the moon — 
came to be regarded rather as artificial divisions, and had 
such a number of days assigned to each as served to make 
up the number of the three hundred and sixty-five days of 
the year ; the distribution of the days was indeed capri- 
cious, February being somewhat shorn of its rights in order 
that the months named in honour of the emperors might 
appear to better advantage. In fact the month ceased to 
be regarded in the celebration of festivals, and was retained 
only for convenience in the civil affairs of life. 

The Komans divided their month into three parts ; the 
Calends, the meaning of which has been already explained ; 
the Nones, a word of uncertain origin ; and the Ides, so 
called probably from an obsolete verb iduare, to divide, be- 
cause they served to divide the month into two nearly equal 
parts. The first day of the month was called the Calends ; 
the days between the Calends and the Nones were counted, 
not as days after the Calends, but as days before the Nones ; 
the days between the Nones and the Ides were counted in 
like manner to be days before the Ides ; and the days fol- 
lowing the Ides were counted as days before the Calends of 
the next month. The following table from Fuss's Koman 
Antiquities will show more precisely their way of compu- 
tation. The Calends, as has been said, was the first day 
of every month, the Nones were the seventh day of March, 
May, July, and October, and the fifth day of the other 
months ; while in those months on which the Nones fell on 
the seventh, the Ides fell on the fifteenth, and on the thir- 
teenth of the other months. [See page 27.] 

It appears from this table, and is indeed well known to 
be the fact, that the Koman method of computing time 
was the reverse of ours. What we call, for example, the 
30th of April, they called the day before the Calends of 



R03I AN METHOD OF RE CKONING THE DAYS. 27 



O x 










«h3 

° 


Feb., d. 28. 


Jan., Aug., Dec, 


Apr., Jun., Sept., 


Mab., MAn, Jui,., 


CD O 
P 


An. biss. 29. 


d. 31. 


Nov., d. 30. 


Oct., d. 31. 










1 


Calendis. 


Calendis, 


Calendis. 


Calendis. 


2 


4 | ante 
3 f Nonas. 


4 I ante 
3 f Nonas. 


4 | ante 
3 j Nonas. 


61 


3 


5 1 ante 


4 


Pridie Nonas. 


Pridie Nonas. 


Pridie Nonas. 


4 f Nonas. 


5 


Nonis. 


Nonis. 


Nonis. 


3J 


6 


8 ] 




81 




81 




Pridie Nonas. 


7 


7 




7 




7 




Nonis, 


8 


6 


, ante 


6 


ante 


6 


ante 


81 




9 


5 


Idus. 


5 


Idus. 


5 


Idus. 


7 




10 


4 




4 




4 




6 


ante 


11 


3 




3 




3 . 




5 ' Idus. 


12 


Pri 


lie Idus. 


Pridie Idus. 


Pridie Idus. 


4 




13 


Idibus. 


Idibus. 


Idibus. 


3 




14 


16 1 




19 1 




18 1 




Pridie Idus. 


15 


15 


to 


18 




17 




Idibus. 


16 


14 


_e3 


17 




16 




17 1 




17 


13 


U 


16 




15 


/-^ 


16 




18 


12 


S 


15 


?" 


14 


m +3 


15 




19 


11 




14 


J "3 


13 


« (3 


14 


CO 


20 


10 


• ! 


13 


"S « 


12 


a s 


13 


to «rt 

«8 n 


21 


9 


12 


I & 


11 


L « « 


12 




22 


8 


I 


U 


■ as 


10 


o m 


11 


23 
24 


7 
6 


10 
9 


05 .2 


9 

8 




10 
9 


ej O) 
Q CO 


25 


5 


a 


8 


§ fl 


7 


S 


8 


O .2 
+J CQ 


26 


4 


§ 


7 


g 


6 


7 


§ fl 


27 


3 




6 




5 




6 


1 


28 


Pri 


lie Calendaa 


5 




4 




5 




29 


Martias. 


4 




3 




4 




30 




3 , 




Pridie Cal. 


3 




31 




Pri 


lie Cal. 


mensis eeq. 


Pridie Cal. 






mensis seq. 




mensis seq. 



May, and what we call the 2d of April, they called the 4th 
before the Nones. All the authorities concur in represent- 
ing this as a " backward " method of counting, and are apt 
to pronounce it odd and fantastical ; and one writer assures 
us that " The Koman writers themselves (who they are he 
" does not say) are at a loss for the reason of this absurd 
"and whimsical manner of computing the days of the 
"month." But is it certain that the Komans did count 
their time backwards? To me, I confess, their method 
seems to be natural, and so far from retrograde that it is 
just the reverse. We, indeed, look backwards and count 
from the first day of the month ; i. e. from a point of past 
time. But the Komans were always looking forward to the 
Nones, the day of relaxation and rest, and counted each 
day before until the Nones arrived. On the Nones they 



28 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

began to look forward to the Ides, at which time in one 
month men entered on office and in another the slaves had 
a holiday ; and they counted the days one by one before the 
Ides, as children among us count the days before Christmas, 
until the Ides came. On the Ides they began to look for- 
ward to the Calends, and counted the days one by one be- 
fore the Calends, the poor debtor with fear and trembling, 
the rich creditor with hope and glee, until the monthty day 
of payment arrived. What there is in all this which is 
absurd or whimsical or retrograde I confess myself unable 
to perceive. 

The Western Church, as a matter of course, adopted the 
Eoman method of computation ; the same method con- 
tinued to be used until the era of the Eeformation, and is 
at this day authorized and prescribed by the Church of 
England ; the last revision of the Prayer Book (1662) in- 
serting the Eoman method in the Calendar, and marking, 
for example, the 25th of March, the day on which " the 
" year of our Lokd in the Church of England beginneth," 
as the 8th before the Calends of April. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The sacredness of the week of seven days — Importance of connecting 
the days of the week with the days of the year — The week-day let- 
ters — Their use in relation to the Immovable Feasts — Process of 
forming the Dominical Letter — How affected by the Leap-year — Ori- 
gin of the term Leap-year. 

/ T I ^HEKE is one division of time of essential importance 
(^ JL in tlie worship of the Christian Church, which was 
not in use among the Pagans of ancient Kome ; I mean 
that of the week of seven days. The tradition of the 
Christian Church refers the origin of this sacred division 
of time to the state of man in Paradise ; and the opinion 
is not devoid of probability that the first day of the week 
was observed under the patriarchal, as it has since been un- 
der the Christian dispensation, in commemoration of the 
creation of the world. *j But what is certain and confessed 
by all is that the week was sacredly observed under the 
Mosaic dispensation, and that the last day of it was dedi- 
cated to a twofold purpose : the first universal, that of 
commemorating the creation ; the second national, that of 
commemorating the redemption of the Israelites from the 
Egyptian bondage. How many new and very sacred asso- 
ciations endeared the week, and some days of it above 
others, to the first Christians, we have already had occasion 
to remark. They knew that their Master had come not to 
destroy the Law but to fulfil it : and they very naturally 
and laudably carried out His design in this particular, by 

* See Bedford's Scripture Chronology, near the beginning. 



30 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

retaining the ancient division of weeks, and observing it in 
its spiritual significance. They fulfilled this part of the 
Mosaic Law by consecrating the week to the service of their 
Kedeemer in the spirit of the New or Christian Dispensa- 
tion. The first day of it in particular, " The Lord's Day, " 
as St. John himself calls it, they distinguished above the 
rest : that they might by the due observance of it com- 
memorate not only the creation of the world, but the 
Eesurrection also of Jesus Christ from the dead, and the 
descent of the Holt Ghost to write the New Law in the 
hearts of the faithful. Wednesday and Friday also were 
reverenced above other days, on account of their relation to 
the , Betrayal and Crucifixion of our Lord : and the dis- 
tinction of these days in the public services of our Church 
is to this day one of the visible links which bind us to the 
Apostolical and primitive age ; our Church in this as in 
greater matters having shown her moderation by shunning 
opposite extremes ; on the one hand the pietism which ex- 
aggerates for fanciful reasons the holiness of the several week- 
days so as practically to subvert the preeminence which Scrip- 
ture and antiquity assign to the Lord's day, and on the 
other the wild fanaticism which, as was shown under 
Cromwell's usurpation, maintains that all days are equally 
holy in order that all may be equally profaned. 

Now as the days of the week fall for several years in suc- 
cession on different days of the year, it becomes important, 
for reasons both of religion and chronology, to connect 
them, so that we may determine the days of the year with 
which the days of the week shall always coincide. 

If the solar year consisted of three hundred and sixty- 
four days, or exactly fifty-two weeks, it is evident that the 
days of the week would be repeated year after year in the 
same order. For then, if any one year began on Sunday, 



WEEK DAYS AND DAYS OF THE YEAR. 31 

it would end on Saturday ; the next year, in like manner, 
would begin on Sunday and end on Saturday ; and so on 
forever. In this case no inconvenience would result from 
calling the days of the week only by their proper names, 
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc., or of denoting them by 
the ordinal numbers, First-day, Second-day, Third-day, 
etc., for in this case it would happen that every day of the 
year would be tied up with one and the same day of the 
week. 

But in fact the common year consists of three hundred 
and sixty-five days, or fifty- two weeks and one clay over : 
the effect of which would be, if there were no leap-year, 
that every day of each year would fall, for a period of seven 
years together, one day of the week later than it fell in the 
year next preceding it. Thus if the first day of this year 
is Sunday, the first day of the next year would be Monday, 
of the next Tuesday, and so on until seven full years shall 
have been completed : and then the eighth year would again 
begin with Sunday. If now we take into account the leap- 
year, four times seven, or twenty-eight years must elapse 
before the days of the week return to the days of the year. 
In this way it is evident that no one day of the week has a 
mark or designation by which it may be invariably assigned 
to the particular day of the year on which it falls. 

Hence the necessity of some expedient whereby to con- 
nect the days of the week with the days of the year. The 
expedient adopted by the ancient Church and still in use is 
very simple. It consists in designating the days of the 
week by the first seven letters of the alphabet, taken in 
alphabetical order, and continually repeated in the same 
order throughout the year. Thus the first day of January 
is marked A, the second b, the third c, the fourth d, the 
fifth e, the sixth /, and the seventh g. The eighth day, 



32 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

which begins the second week of the year, is in like man- 
ner marked A, the second day b, the third c, and so on to the 
fourteenth day, which is again marked g. The same nota- 
tion is continued throughout the year : all the days of 
which are distributed into weeks, and the days of each week 
are marked respectively by the first seven letters of the al- 
phabet, proceeding always in the same order from A to g. 
No attention is paid to the months : the notation being 
limited to the days of the week. 

Thus, while in common parlance there is no day of the 
year or month which has its distinctive and permanent des- 
ignation, but each is in turn, for a period of twenty-eight 
years, either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, etc., or 
First-day, Second-day, or Third-day, etc,, yet on the other 
hand, in the language of the Church Calendar, every day 
of the year has its proper and invariable mark for its day 
of the week. For every day of the year has its own letter, 
and this letter denotes the day of the week on which that 
day of the year falls forever. For example, the Feast of 
St. Paul's Conversion (January 25th) has opposite to it the 
letter d, and the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25th) 
has g ; and these letters point to the days of the week on 
which the above named Feasts respectively fall forever. 
The same is true, of course, of all the other Immovable 
Feasts. 

In order to turn the language of the Calendar into the 
language of common life, it is only necessary to know the 
Sunday letter for the year ; that is, the letter (which may 
be any one from A to g) which in any given year represents 
the First-day of the week ; for if we know this, we can at 
once give the common name to the day of the week which 
is represented by every other letter. In the Calendar of 
the Prayer-Book, which is intended for perpetual use, A is 



FIRST DAY OF EACH MONTH. 33 

assumed as the Sunday letter, and is therefore printed in 
capitals throughout the year, while the other letters are 
printed in small italics. In a Calendar or Church Alma- 
nac intended for any particular year, the Sunday letter for 
the year, whichever of the seven it be, is given in a capital 
form, and the others in the English Church almanacs are 
given in italics. As Sunday, in the language of Scripture 
and the Church, is called Dies Dominica or the Lord's 
Day, so the proper letter for the Sunday of each year is 
called the Dominical Letter ; and so distinguished from 
the others, which are sometimes called the ferial letters. 

By the mere combination of the ferial and Dominical 
Letters, the Calendar, besides subserving the above named 
purposes, will be found convenient for the verification of 
dates and other matters of less importance. With the Do- 
minical Letter of the year, for example, and the letter 
proper to the first day of the month, we can at once deter- 
mine the day of the week on which a stated day of the 
month falls in any given year. For the civil month, though 
not essential, is yet convenient ; and the student will find 
it advantageous to impress on his memory the letter proper 
to the first day of every month. To assist him in doing so 
is the design of the following catch lines ; which consist of 
twelve words answering in their order to the twelve months 
of the year, the first letter of each word being the proper 
letter for the first day of the corresponding month : 

A t Dover Dwells O eorge Drown Esquire, 
(rood Christopher .Finch, J.nd David Fry&v. 

By knowing the letter of the first day of the month and 
the Dominical Letter, we can readily tell on what day of 
the week any day of the year will fall. On what day of the 
week did the Fourth of July fall 1870 ? G being the first 



34 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



day of July, and B the Dominical Letter for the year, the 
first day of the month was Friday and the fourth Monday. 
Or if I would know on what day of the week Christmas 
fell in 1869, it is only necessary to remember that the first 
day of December is F, and that consequently C, which was 
that year the Dominical Letter, is the 5th, which makes 
the 26th also to be Sunday, and the 25th Saturday. 

For the convenience of the reader I subjoin a table of 
the Immovable Feasts, with their proper week-day letters 
annexed. By remembering the letter of the holy day and 
that of the first clay of the month, and knowing the Do- 
minical Letter for the year, one will never be at a loss to 
ascertain the day of the week on which the holy day falls. 





j Feast of the Circumcision. 
\ St. Barnabas. 




Purification. 


(I 




St. Peter. 








St. Bartholomew. 


b 


{ St. Phil, and St, James. 


e - 


St. Matthew. 


( Feast of the Nativity. 




St. Andrew. 








St. Thomas. 




C St. Mark. 




Holy Innocents. 


c 


■< St. James. 








( St. Stephen. 




[ Epiphanv. 






f 


J St. Matthias. 




f St. Paul. 




[ St. Michael and All Angels. 


a 


J St. Luke. 






1 All Saints. 




[ Annunciation. 




[ St. John the Evangelist. 


9 


St. John Baptist. 
' St. Simon and St. Jude. 



Now let us investigate the process whereby the Domini- 
cal Letter is ascertained for any given year. The Calendar, 
it will be observed, assigns to every year three hundred and 
sixty-five days, and never more. This sum being equal to 
fifty-two complete weeks and one day over, it is evident 
that with what day soever of the week the year begins, 
with, that same day of the week it must also end. Let us 
suppose, then, that the first day of the year is Sunday, and 



FORMATION OF THE SUNDAY LETTER. 35 

that A is the Dominical Letter. . Then as at the end of 
the three hundred and sixty-fourth day of the year, there 
will have been fifty-two complete weeks, it is evident that 
the three hundred and sixty-fifth day of the same year will 
also he Sunday and begin a new week. Consequently the 
first day of the year next following will be Monday ; the 
second, Tuesday ; the third, Wednesday ; the fourth, 
Thursday ; the fifth, Friday ; the sixth, Saturday ; and 
the seventh, Sunday. But in the Calendar the letter 
proper to the seventh day of January is g ; so that if A is 
the Sunday letter for one year, then G is the Sunday letter 
for the year next following. Let G, then, be the Dominical 
Letter for the second year, and we shall find that the last 
G in the Calendar or the last Sunday in the year, will be 
the 30th of December, and that the last day of the year 
will be Monday. Consequently the first day of the next 
year will be Tuesday ; the second, Wednesday ; the third, 
Thursday ; the fourth, Friday ; the fifth, Saturday ; and 
the sixth, Sunday. But the proper letter for the sixth day 
of January is / ; and hence it appears that as G is the 
Dominical Letter of the second year, so is F of the third 
year. Proceeding in the same way without regard to the 
bissextile year, we shall find that E will be the Dominical 
Letter for the fourth year, D for the fifth, C for the sixth, 
and B for the seventh. The eighth year will begin a new 
septenary with the same results. Hence, as the first seven 
letters of the alphabet, taken in their alphabetical order, 
denote the days of the week for any number of weeks, so 
the same letters, taken in a retrograde order, denote sev- 
erally the Dominical or Sunday letter for the year, and for 
any number of years. In other words, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, 
continually repeated, show the successive days of the week 
perpetually, and G, F, E, D, C, B, A, continually repeated, 



36 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

show the order in which the Sunday or Dominical letters 
perpetually succeed one another. 

This retrograde order of the Dominical letters (which, 
as we shall see, is preserved in spite of the bissextile inter- 
vention) is so important to be noted that Petavius and 
Bede* have given us each a catch-verse to impress it on 
the memory of the learner ; and not to depart from their 
example, we may give a like catch in English : 

Grant's Foes, Ere Dead, Could Brandish Arms. 

But as the Calendar makes the year consist of three hun- 
dred and sixty-five and a quarter days, and in order to get 
rid of the fraction, intercalates one day in every fourth 
year, which is called a bissextile or leap-year, it becomes 
necessary to inquire how the order of the Dominical letters 
is affected by this intercalation. 

For the better understanding of the subject, we must 
carefully distinguish the Calendar year and day from the 
natural year and day. A leap-year consists of three hundred 
and sixty-six natural days of twenty-four hours each ; but 
the Church Calendar makes every year, a leap-year as well 
as a common year, to consist of exactly three hundred and 
sixty-five days ; and consequently the intercalated day 
cannot of itself become a calendar day, but can only be 
inserted in the calendar by being joined with another day, 
and having the same letter with the day to which it is 
joined. The intercalation is made on the sixth day before 
the calends of March, which answers to our 24th of Feb- 
ruary ; but it is not made by adding a new day to the 
calendar year, but by doubling one day in the calendar 

* Petavius gives us Gaudet Francus Equo, David Cane, Beltezar Agno ; 
perhaps for the sake of originality, since the traditional verse, accredited 
to the venerable Bede, is better : 

Grandia Frendit Equus Dam Cernit Belliger Arma. 



ORIGIN OF THE WORD LEAP-YEAR, 3? 

year. Hence the sixth day before the calends of March 
was twice repeated, and the one day was called the first 
sixth, and the other day the second sixth ; whence the 
year came to be called Bissextile. The proper letter for 
the 24th of February is/, and hence the old copies of the 
calendar give the rule for that day, "F lit era bis nume- 
retur," the letter F must be counted twice ; showing that 
these two natural days are held and accounted to be one 
and the same Calendar day, having one and the same letter 
in common. 

By this simple contrivance the Bissextile year of three 
hundred and sixty-six days is brought within the Calendar 
year of three hundred and sixty-five days. If a new letter 
had been introduced to mark the intercalated day, the ro- 
tation of the seven letters would have been utterly disordered 
and destroyed ; but not being a Calendar day, the addi- 
tional day can have no new letter, and the seven letters re- 
volve in alphabetical order through the bissextile the same 
as in common years. The fact that one day has its letter 
doubled, compels us to assign to the bissextile year two 
Dominical Letters ; which, however, merely retards the re- 
turn of the Dominical Letters, but does not derange their 
order. Of the two Dominical Letters in a bissextile year, 
the first begins the year, and is continued as long as each 
day of the year has only one week-day letter ; but when it 
comes to the intercalated day with two letters, its function 
is arrested, and it yields its place to the letter next to it 
in retrograde order, which serves for the rest of the year. 
Thus, if a bissextile year has G- for its Sunday letter in the 
month of January, it retains it until the 24th of February, 
when, in consequence of the week-day letter being doubled, 
the year leaps from G to F, and F is the Sunday letter for 
the remainder of the year. 



38 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

" When the years of our Lord can be divided into four 
" equal parts (i. e., when a given year can be divided by 
" four without a remainder), then the Sunday letter 
" leapeth ; " and in another place we read that " when 
"the year leapeth, the psalms and lessons" shall be 
read in a different order from that observed in common 
years. Such is the language of the rubrics of the Prayer 
Book in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and it was the common 
language of that time. And if the year, or its letter, may 
by a common figure be said to leap, pray why may not the 
year itself, for the same reason, be called the leap-year ? 
This, indeed, is the obvious explanation of a matter which 
seems to have puzzled our modern cyclopediasts and lex- 
icographers as much as if it related to the antiquities of 
Egypt or of the antediluvians. One of them, the New 
Edinburgh Encyclopedia, amuses its readers as follows : 
" Hence the year of three hundred and sixty-six days was 
" called bissextile by the Eomans ; and it has very improp- 
" erly received the name of leap-year in this country, an 
" appellation which might have been more appropriate had 
" it consisted of three hundred and sixty-four days." And 
the Encyclopedia Britannica remarks : " The English de- 
" nomination of leap-year would have been more appro- 
" priate if that year had differed from the common year in 
" defect, and contained only three hundred and sixty- four 
" days." While other learned pundits betray their per- 
plexity by informing us that " The reason of the name of 
" leap-year is that a day of the week is missed ; as, if on 
" one year the first of March be on Monday, it will on the 
" next year be on Tuesday, but on leap-year it will leap to 
" Wednesday." 

That the order of the Dominical Letters is not deranged 



REVOLUTION OF THE SUNDAY LETTERS. 39 

by the intercalation, and that their revolution is retarded 
so as to demand for its completion a period of twenty-eight 
years, will appear from an inspection of the letters adapted 
to the several years of the Solar Cycle ; the nature and uses 
of which will be the subject of the following chapter. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Solar Cycle — Table of the Dominical Letters — Its explanation and 
use — Table showing the days of the month by the Dominical Letters 
— Its explanation — Examples of its use — Table showing the Domin- 
ical Letters according to the Old Style for four thousand two hun- 
dred years after Christ — Theory of the Table and its dependence on 
the Solar Cycle — Solar Regulars and Concurrents— Their meaning 
and use. 

IT was remarked above that the word Cycle is used in 
chronology to denote a portion of time, at the end of 
which events and phenomena return to the same position 
as at the beginning ; and that the calculations of the 
Church Calendar are founded, not directly on astronomical 
observations, but on the deductions from the two cycles — 
viz., the Solar Cycle and the Lunar, used by the ancients 
in the measurement of time. These cycles and their uses 
we are now to explain. 

The Solar Cycle, or Cycle of the Sun, is a revolution of 
twenty-eight years, at the end of which the Sun's place 
returns very nearly to the same signs and degrees of the 
ecliptic on the same months and days. Now, as in the 
course of the Cycle the days, months and years have made 
one entire revolution, it is evident that the letters which 
denote the days and weeks and years of which the Cycle 
consists, will have made a corresponding revolution in the 
same time ; in other words, that at the expiration of the 
twenty-eight years, the days of the week will return to the 
same days of the year, and that the Dominical Letters, for 
leap-years as well as common years, will return again to 
the same days of the month. The return of the letters 



, CYCLE OF THE DOMINICAL LETTERS. 41 

may be easily verified without reference to the celestial 
phenomena ; and as it is the letters, and not the measures 
of time which they represent, with which we are imme- 
diately concerned, we may safely dismiss all consideration 
of the astronomical fact, and regard the twenty-eight years 
simply as a cycle in which the Dominical Letters form a 
complete revolution ; so that if they are continued in the 
same order, they will exactly repeat themselves. For all 
the purposes of the Calendar, therefore, the cycle is merely 
a cycle of the Dominical Letters, and is called the Solar 
Cycle, in the opinion of some, not with reference to the 
motion of the Sun, but from its repeating the letters which 
the Calendar assigns to Dies Solis or Sunday. 

The following table exhibits the revolution of the Do- 
minical Letters in the aforesaid cycle of twenty-eight years, 
the letters being arranged in a retrograde order, as ex- 
plained above, and one letter being assigned to every com- 
mon and two to every leap-year. In constructing the 
table, we may, of course, begin either with a bissextile or a 
common year ; but in beginning with a bissextile, we follow 
the prescription of the author of the Paschal period. 

The first column on the left represents a Cycle of twenty- 
eight years, and the second the Dominical Letters, or the 
letter corresponding to each year of the Cycle. There are 
several things in the table worthy of note : 1. The letters 
from the first year to the twenty-eighth follow one another 
in a retrograde order. 2. As five letters are assigned to 
every four years, so in the seven times four or twenty-eight 
years every letter is repeated ^yq times ; twice in combina- 
tion with another letter, and three times alone by itself. 
3. The same combination does not occur twice ; Gr F, for 
example, which corresponds to the first year, is found no- 
where else in the table. 4. But what is chiefly to be noted 



42 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



TABLE A. 

Showing the Dominical Letters as arranged for the Solar Cycle according 
to the Old Style of the Church Calendar. 

is that the revolution 
of the seven letters in 
their retrograde order 
is exhausted, and if 
the Tahle were contin- 
ued for another period 
of twenty-eight years, 
precisely the same phe- 
nomena would he re- 
peated. For as the 
twenty-eighth year is 
the last of a quater- 
nion, and is marked A, 
so the next year twen- 
ty-nine begins a new 
leap-year with Gr F 
(these letters being in 
the retrograde order 

next to A), and the next cycle proceeds exactly as the last ; 
as in the adjoining schedule on the right. 

The process may be continued indefinitely, and always 
with the same results ; whence it appears that the seven 
Dominical Letters, repeated one after another in a retro- 
grade order, so that every fourth year shall have two let- 
ters, will make a complete revolution once in every twenty- 
eight years. On the supposition, therefore, that the Julian 
year of three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours is 
the true solar year, a table exhibiting the changes of the 



Years. 


Dom. 
Letters. 


1 


G F 


2 


E 


3 


D 


4 


C 


5 


B A 


6 


G 


7 


F 


8 


E 


9 


D C 


10 


B 


11 


A 


12 


G 


13 


F E 


14 


D 


15 


C 


16 


B 


17 


A G 


18 


F 


19 


E 


20 


D 


21 


C B 


22 


A 


23 


G 


24 


F 


25 


E D 


26 


C 


27 


B 


28 


A 1 



Years. 


Dom. 
Letters. 


29 


G F 


30 


E 


31 


D 


32 


C 


33 


B A 


34 


G 


35 


F 


36 


E 


37 


D C 


38 


B 


39 


A 


40 


G 


41 


F E 


42 


D 


43 


C 


44 


B 


45 


A G 


46 


F 


47 


E 


48 


B 


49 


C B 


50 


A 


51 


G 


52 


F 


53 


E D 


54 


C 


55 


B 


56 


A 



TO FIXD TEE DOMINICAL LETTER. 43 

letters for one period of twenty-eight years will enable us 
to ascertain what the Sunday Letter has been in any past 
year, or what it will be in any future year. 

In order to apply the cycle to any particular era, it is 
only necessary to know what year of the cycle coincides 
with the first year of that era. The cycle is not specially 
adapted to the Christian era ; and in fact was in use long 
before the adoption of the Christian era. This era is said 
to have been introduced by Dionysius Exiguus, who dated 
its commencement from the seven hundred and fifty-third 
year of the building of Kome and the four thousand seven 
hundred and fourteenth year of the Julian period. Now 
that year was the Until year of a Solar Cycle, and conse- 
quently in order to find the year of the cycle which answers 
to a given year of the Christian era, we must add nine to 
the given year and then divide by 28. The quotient will 
show the number of complete cycles that have elapsed 
since the birth of Christ, and the remainder, if there be 
a remainder, will show the year of the next cycle of 
which we are in search ; or if there be no remainder, 
28 will be the year of the cycle. Thus, if I would know 
what are the Dominical Letters for the year 1580, I add 9 
and divide the sum by 28, which gives me 56 for a quotient 
and 21 for a remainder. The year of the Solar Cycle, 
therefore, which corresponds to the year of Christ 1580, is 
21 ; and turning to the Table, page 41, I find over against 
21 the letters C B ; whence it appears that these were the 
Dominical Letters for the year 1580. Putting m, therefore, 
for the current year of the Christian Era, we have in gen- 
eral this formula : = q + K, in which K or 28, if R 

= o, shows the year of the Solar Cycle, opposite to which 
stands the Dominical Letter or Letters for the year m. 



44 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

But observe that this applies only to the Old Style and not 
to the New Style of the Calendar, the peculiarities of which 
will be explained in their proper place. 

The advantage of this system of literal notation may be 
seen in the Table on page 45, which is, in fact, a perpetual 
almanac. In using it, all that is necessary is to know the 
Sunday or Dominical Letter for the year ; the figures in 
the column under that letter denote the Sundays of the 
year, while the figures to the right or left of the Sunday 
show respectively the week-days from Monday to Saturday, 
or from Saturday to Monday. The Table is adapted to the 
New Style as well as the Old ; it is much used in verifying 
dates. 

The principle on which this Table is constructed is found 
in the connection that subsists between the Sunday and 
week-day letters. The letters in the Table serve for both 
week-days and Sundays. The first day of each month is 
set under its proper letter, and as the days of the month 
grow from left to right by the addition of one, they, in like 
manner, fall each under its proper week-day letter ; and 
as the days of the month grow from top to bottom by the 
addition of seven, each day falls in turn under a Dominical 
Letter. So that it is only necessary to know the Dominical 
Letter for a given year in order to ascertain the Sundays 
and consequently the week-days of every month in that 
year. 

Two examples will show the use of the Table. 

I have a manuscript sermon which purports to have been 
preached at " St. Michael's, Cornhill, London, August, 
1730 ; " was it preached on a Sunday or on a week-day ? 
The Sunday Letter for 1730, Old Style, was D ; and under 
D, opposite to the month of August, I find 30, showing 
that the 30th of August in that year was Sunday. 



VERIFICATION OF DATES. 



45 



TABLE 



Showing the days of the month by the Sunday Letters, both for the Old and 
the New Style. 



Months. 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


G 




1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 




8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


January, 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


OCTOBKR. 


22 


23 


24 


25 


26 


27 


28 




29 


30 


31 












1 


2 


3 


4 




5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


Ffbbuary, 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


March, 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 


25 


NOYEMEEE. 


26 


27 


28 


29 


30 


31 






1 




2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 




9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


April, 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


22 


July. 


23 

30 


24 
31 


25 


26 


27 


28 


29 




1 


2 


3 


4 


5 




6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 




13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


August. 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 


25 


26 




27 


28 


29 


30 


31 








1 


2 




3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 




10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


Septembee, 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


December. 


24 
31 


25 


26 


27 


28 


29 


30 




1 


2 


3 


4 


5 
12 


6 

13 




7 


8 


9 


10 


11 




14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


May. 


21 


22 


23 


24 


25 


26 


27 




28 


29 


30 


31 










1 


2 


3 


* 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


Juke. 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 




25 


26 


27 


28 


29 


30 





46 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

In old times historical and testamentary documents were 
often dated on the week-day preceding or following an im- 
movable feast. In this case the above table is necessary in 
order to determine the day of the month. 

Edward I of England was crowned, as appears by the 
record, on the Sunday after the Feast of the Assumption, 
1274. Kequirecl the day of the month. 

The Feast of the Assumption is the 15th of August, and 
the Dominical Letter for 1274 is Gr. Keferring to the 
Table, we find that the first Sunday (Gr) after the 15th of 
August in that year is the 19 th day of the month, which 
was consequently the day of the coronation. 

On the Solar Cycle are founded the Tables which are 
given in treatises of Chronology and other works for finding 
the Dominical Letter both for the Old and New Style. 
Annexed is a Table showing the Dominical Letters for 
four thousand two hundred years after the birth of Christ, 
according to the Old Style. 

To use the Table, look for the years under a hundred at 
the left side, and for the hundreds at the top. Follow the 
two lines, and at their angle of intersection you will find 
the Dominical Letter for the year. 

An inspection will show that this Table, as respects the 
arrangement of the figures under 100, and as respects the 
arrangement of the centuries, is founded on the Solar Cycle ; 
that is to say, on the fact that the letters go through all 
their changes in twenty-eight years, and that in every addi- 
tional cycle of twenty-eight years they repeat themselves in 
the same order as in the first. 

The figures under 100 are contained in the four columns 
at the left hand. If you read those figures from top to 
bottom you find that they increase by unity, and that each 
column (except the fourth which is broken by 99) contains 



AXALYSIS OF THE TABLE, 



47 



HUNDREDS OF YEARS AFTER CHRIST. 












100 


200 


300 


400 


500 


600 


Years by ichich the 


700 


800 


900 


1000 


1100 


1200 


1300 


given 


year 


ex- 


1400 


1500 


1600 


1700 


1800 


1900 


2000 


ceeds the hun- 


2100 


2200 


2300 


2400 


2500 


2600 


2700 


dreds of years. 


2800 


2900 


3000 


3100 


3200 


3300 


3400 








3500 


3600 


3700 


3800 


3900 


4000 


4100 





28 


56 


84 


D C 


E D 


F E 


G F 


AG 


B A 


C B 


1 


29 


57 


85 


B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


A 


2 


30 


58 


86 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


3 


31 


59 


87 


G 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


4 


32 


60 


88 


F E 


G F 


A G 


B A 


C B 


D C 


E D 


5 


33 


61 


89 


D 


E 


F 


G 


A 


B 


C 


6 


34 


62 


90 


C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


A 


B 


7 


35 


63 


91 


B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


A 


8 


36 


64 


92 


A G 


B A 


C B 


C D 


E D 


F E 


G F 


9 


37 


65 


93 


F 


G 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


10 


38 


66 


94 


E 


F 


G 


A 


B 


C 


D 


11 39 


67 


95 


D 


E 


F 


G 


A 


B 


C 


12 


40 


68 


96 


C B 


D C 


E D 


F E 


G F 


A G 


B A 


13 


41 


69 


97 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


14 


42 


70 


98 


G 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


15 


43 


71 


99 


F 


G 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


16 


44 


72 




E D 


F E 


G F 


A G 


B A 


C B 


D C 


17 


45 


73 




C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


A 


B 


18 


46 


74 




B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


A 


19 


47 


75 




A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


20 


48 
49 


76 

77 




G F 


A G 


B A 


C B 


D C 


E D 


F E 


21 




E 


F 


G 


A 


B 


C 


D 


22 


50 


78 




D 


E 


F 


G 


A 


B 


C 


23 


51 


79 




C 


D 


E 


F 


G 


A 


B 


24 


52 


80 




B A 


C B 


D C 


E D 


F E 


G F 


A G 


25 


53 


81 




G 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


26 


54 


82 




F 


G 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


27 


55 


83 




E 


F 


G 


A 


B 


C 


D 



48 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

twenty-eight places. If you read them sidewise or laterally, 
you find that they increase in every line by the addition of 
28. And as the letters repeat themselves once in twenty- 
eight years, it follows that the same letters which answer 
for the year 1, answer also for the years 29, 57, and 85 ; 
that those which are proper for the year 2 are proper also 
for the years 30, 58, and 86 ; and so on for all the numbers 
under 100. 

Examine the centuries and you find that if you read 
them laterally they proceed in an arithmetical series from 
to 4100 ; and that if you read them from the top to the 
bottom they increase by the addition of 700. The reason 
of this arrangement of the centuries is that 700 (and, con- 
sequently, every number of centuries which is measured by 
700, as 1400, 2100, &c.) is a multiple of 28, and is the first 
hundred which is a multiple of twenty-eight. And as it is 
the law of the Cycle that the letters repeat themselves in 
the same order in every twenty-eight years, it follows that 
at the expiration of seven hundred years the same letters 
return in the same order as at the beginning ; D C, for 
example, being the letters for the year 28, are also the let- 
ters for the years 700, 1400, and the other centuries in the 
first column ; and E D, being the proper letters for the 
year 100, are the same also for the centurial years which 
grow from 100 by the addition of 700. So with the other 
columns until you come to the bottom of the seventh 
column, where you have 4100, which, combined with the 
numbers umler 100, will give you the Sunday Letters for 
four thousand one hundred and ninety-nine years. The 
Table may be continued indefinitely on the same principle. 

As to the arrangement of the letters, it is only necessary 
to remember that the year 1 of the Christian era is, as 
above explained, the tenth year of the Solar Cycle. On re- 



THE SOLAR REGULARS, 49 

ferring to the Table, page 41, you find that the letter for the 
tenth year of the Solar Cycle is B. Hence, opposite to the 
year 1 in the Table of the Dominical Letters you have the 
Letter B. The year next before in the Cycle being a bis- 
sextile, has the two letters which precede B ; and these, 
taking the letters in the retrograde order, are D C, which 
are inserted for the sake of the centurial years from 700 to 
3500. From B, therefore, as a nucleus, the letters proceed 
in the retrograde order throughout the Table. Whence it 
appears that a knowledge of the Solar Cycle is all that a 
man needs to enable him to construct a table of the Sunday 
Letters for any length of time. 

Sometimes we have use for the Dominical Letters for the 
years before Christ. To construct such a Table, you ar- 
range the figures the same as above, and take D C (calling 
the combination C D) for your starting point, and make 
the letters proceed in their alphabetical order, or the reverse 
of the order in which they proceed in the years after the 
Christian epoch. It is convenient to begin with D C, be- 
cause it indicates a leap-year ; but this brings E opposite 
to the first year of the Christian era. Now the year in the 
Solar Cycle corresponding to E is 8 ; but as the first year 
of the Christian era is the tenth of the Cycle, so it is evi- 
dent that the year next before is the ninth and not the 
eighth year of the Cycle ; and this is the reason why in 
using a Table of the Dominical Letters before Christ, you 
are always directed to subtract one from the year the letter 
of which you wish to find. * 

The few but important peculiarities which distinguish 
the New Style from the Old Style of the Calendar and 
affect its use, will be explained in a future chapter. 

On the Solar Cycle are also founded the Solar Kegulars 
and Concurrents, the names given to certain numbers which 



50 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR 



are useful in verifying the dates of events which transpired 
while the Old Style of the Calendar was in vogue. A brief 
account of the functions of these numbers and the method 
of forming them, seems to be a fitting sequel to the present 
chapter. The reader who wishes to pursue the subject will 
find it treated with his usual copiousness of learning by 
Petavius in his " De Doctrina Temporum," lib. vi, c. 27. 
The various methods of forming the Solar "Regulars there 
given, are an example of the exhaustive ingenuity which 
the learned of past ages have brought to bear on all matters 
connected with the Calendar. 

The easiest and most simple way to form the Kegulars is 
to assume the notation of the Calendar : 



a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, d = 4, e = 5, f = 6, g = 7, 

and then the figure corresponding to the letter of the first 
day of each month, increased by unity, is the regular of 
that month. Thus the first day of January is A, which is 
equal to 1 ; and 1 -f- 1 = 2, so that 2 is the regular of 
January. The first letter of February is d, which is 
equal to 4 ; and 4+1 = 5, hence 5 is the regular of 
February. When g (= 7) is the first letter, the regular, as 
it cannot exceed seven, becomes one. Thus found, the 
Solar Kegulars are as follows : 

Table of the Solak Kegulars for every Month. 





n 














K 




K 


a 


§ 




w 










OB 


1 


B 


1 


1 


i 


K 
M 
H 
ft 


1 


i 


5 




1 


1 


QQ 


o 

EH 

o 


> 
i 


o 

ft 


2 


5 


5 


i 


3 


6 


1 


4 


7 


2 


5 


7 



The concurrents are the days which remain at the end of 
the year when the weeks are completed. A common year 



REGULARS AND CONCURRENTS. 



51 



has fifty-two weeks and one day over ; and a bissextile has 
fifty-two weeks and two days over- ; the supernumerary 
days, one for a common year and two for a bissextile, are 
called concurrents, because they are used for chronological 
computations, in concurrence with the Solar Cycle in the 
manner which we are about to explain. 

In collecting these concurrents for a series of years, it is 
to be noted that they increase at the rate of one a year for 
the common year and two a year for the bissextile years. 
As the changes of the letters, in the Julian Calendar, are 
exhausted in the course of twenty-eight years, it is only 
necessary to collect them for that Cycle in order to adapt 
them to perpetual use in the said calendar ; and as the 
object in collecting these concurrents is to connect them 
with the days of the week, they are not suffered to exceed 
7 in number, but are made to repeat themselves from 1 to 
7 throughout the Cycle ; so that each year of the Cycle 
has its own concurrent, as may be seen in the following 
Table : 



Table of the Concurrents, with the several Years op the 
Solar Cycle. 



1 

1 


m 

v 
u 

1 

a 

8 


1 


1 

■-, 

g 

a 
o 
O 


© 

u 

03 

02 


a 

s 

U 

a 

o 

a 
o 
a 


I 

u 

"o 
m 


H 

g 

u 

n 

a 

§ 

o 


&- 

1 


1 

a 

a 

8 


02 


CD 

s 

1 

s 
o 

o 




! 

o 

o 


I. 
II. 

HI. 
IV. 


l 

2 

3 
4 


V. 
VI. 

VII. 
VIII. 


6 

7 
1 

2 


IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 


4 
5 
6 

7 


XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 


2 
3 
4 
5 


XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 


7 

1 

2 
3 


XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 


5 
6 

7 
1 


XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 


3 
4 
5 
6 



The first year is accounted a bissextile ; and after that 
it will be observed that the concurrents increase every 
fourth year by 2 and every other year by one, until they 
amount to 7, when they return to 1. 



52 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

Now, with these Tables before us, having the month and 
the day of the month for a given year, we first find the year 
of the Cycle corresponding to the given year ; then we have 
only to add the regular of the month to the concurrent of 
the year, and the sum, if less than 7, gives us the day of 
the week on which the said month began ; or if the sum be 
more than seven, then subtract seven from it, and the re- 
mainder is the day of the week on which the month began ; 
the days being numbered Sunday 1, Monday 2, Tuesday 3, 
Wednesday 4, Thursday 5, Friday 6, and Saturday 7. 

The following examples will illustrate the use of these 
numbers : 

The massacre of the ten thousand French at the Sicilian 
Vespers was on March 20th, 1282. What was the day of 
the week ? 

Divide 1282 + 9 by 28 and you have a remainder of 3. 
The year of the Cycle, therefore, is III, the concurrent of 
which is 3. The regular for March is 5, which, added to 3, 
is 8 ; and 8 — 7 = 1; which shows that March on that 
year (1282) began on Sunday, consequently the 20th was 
Friday, which in that year was the Friday following what 
is sometimes called Passion Sunday. 

The Parliament for the third year of Eichard the Second, 
A. D. 1379, met on the Monday next after the Feast of St. 
Hilary. What day of the month should the modern his- 
torian assign to the meeting ? The Feast of St. Hilary is 
January the 13th. 

The Concurrent of 1379 is 5, and the Kegular of January 
is 2 ; and 5 + 2 = 7 shows Saturday to have been on that 
year the 1st day of January. The 13th, therefore, was 
Thursday, and the Parliament met on the 17th day of 
January. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The nature and place of the day intercalated in the Leap-year — Why 
called the Bissextile — The Calendar assigns but twenty-eight days to 
February, the 29th not being a Calendar day — Different Revisions of 
the Prayer Book concur in the same rule — Curious controversy as to 
the Feast of St. Matthias in Leap-year — Occasion of the controversy — 
The mandate of Archbishop Sancroft — Opinions of Drs. Nicholls and 
Wallis, Wheatly and Johnson — Conflicting usage and the result. 

WE have seen that notwithstanding the intercalation 
of a day once in four years, the Church limits the 
days of the leap-year as well as the common year to 365, 
and have shown the inconveniences that would result if the 
day in excess in the leap-year were counted as a Calendar 
day. We have seen also that the intercalary day was in- 
serted next after the sixth day before the Calends of 
March, so as to make a first sixth and a second sixth, each 
having/ for its proper letter. The sixth day before March 
is in our account the 24th of February, and is the Feast of 
St. Matthias ; and hence the 24th and 25th, being, in fact, 
one and the same Calendar day, have the letter / in 
common. 

Hence arise two questions : The first is as to the length 
of the month of February in leap-years, and the second as 
to the day of the month on which in a leap-year the Feast 
of St. Matthias ought to be celebrated. 

In regard to the first question, there can, I think, be no 
room for anything more than a verbal dispute. For if we 
admit that the Church limits the leap-year to three hun- 
dred and sixty-five Calendar days, and makes the interca- 
lated day in February to be one and the same with the day 



54 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

next to which it is intercalated, then undoubtedly the 
month of February has never more than twenty-eight 
days ; and that the Church in fact assigns to February 
only twenty-eight days, and never allows twenty-nine 
days for the leap-year, is a point which, as will soon ap- 
pear, admits of indisputable proof. Hence as respects the 
Church Calendar the old canon is correct : 

Thirty days hath September, 
April, June, and November ; 
February has twenty-eight alone, 
And all the rest have thirty-one. 

While the other and more common rule : 

February alone hath eight and a score, 
And every leap-year we give it one more, 

is evidently adapted to secular and not to ecclesiastical 
computation. 

To this I may add that a certain friend (who shall be 
nameless) and his son, who were each born on the 29th of 
February, and all other churchmen who are in the same 
predicament, have no right to complain that they can cele- 
brate their birthday only once in four years. For if they 
follow the Church's reckoning, which recognizes no such 
day as the 29th of February, they may be sure that they 
were born — albeit in leap-year — on the 28th of February, 
and that consequently the 28th is the anniversary of their 
birth. 

To this statement it may be objected that the Prayer 
Books, both of Great Britain and the United States, make 
the February of the leap-year to have twenty-nine days. 
This is not quite correct ; for although our present Prayer 
Books, unlike those of older date, do not regard the twenty- 
fourth and twenty-fifth days of February as one, but assign 
to them different letters, yet they do not assign to the 29th 



FEBRUARY, ITS NUMBER OF DATS. 55 

of February a letter of its own, but either leave it without 
a letter, or, without authority, borrow for it either the 
letter of the 28th of February, or that of the 1st of March, 
thus making the day appear to a superficial observer to be 
what it is not — viz., a Calendar day. After all, however, 
by printing the day without a letter of its own, our modern 
editors assert the principle of the Calendar ; and the point 
on which they differ from what I believe to be the more 
correct usage, is that they make # the intercalary day to be 
the 29th of February instead of the 25th ; thus giving us 
a bissextile year which is, literally at least, not a bissextile. 

It is true, indeed, that our modern editions of the Prayer 
Book, both English and American (Mr. Blunt' s Annotated 
Prayer Book is no exception), besides giving, as most of 
them do, without authority, a letter to the 29th of Febru- 
ary, expressly declare, in large letters at the head of the 
month, that February in leap-year lias twenty-nine days. 
When and by what authority this declaration was first 
introduced, or by what authority it is continued, I am un- 
able to discover. That the declaration is contrary to the 
principle on which the Calendar is constructed, has been, I 
think, already shown ; and all the old authorities that have 
come under my observation, rule with one accord that Feb- 
ruary has twenty-eight days ; never more. 

The statute Be Anno Bissextili, 21 Henry III, enacted 
at Westminster A. D. 1236 (as quoted by Dr. Nicholls), is 
very explicit : 

" To take away from henceforth all doubt and ambiguity 
u that may arise hereafter, the day increasing in the leap- 
" year shall be accounted for one year [day ?], so that 
" because of that day none should be prejudiced, that is 
"impleaded, but it shall be taken and reckoned of the 
" same month wherein it groweth, and that the day and 



56 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

" the day next going before, shall be accounted for one and 
" the same day." 

Here the intercalary day is expressly said to increase 
and grow, and to be one and the same with the day next 
before it, and out of which it is supposed to grow. It is 
obvious to infer that the rule of the Church was at that 
time undoubted, and that the design of the statute was to 
apply the same rule to secular purposes. 

If we refer to the authorized editions of the Prayer Book, 
we find the results to be as follows : In the first book of 
Edward VI, the Calendar for every month is printed with 
only the name of the month at the head of the page ; but 
in every subsequent revision the names of the months are 
printed at the top of the pa^c, together with the number 
of days they severally contain. And what number of days 
do they assign to February ? The second book of Edward 
YI, 1552, says, " February hath XXVIII days ; " the re- 
vision of Queen Elizabeth, 1559, the same ; that of Hamp- 
ton Court Conference, 1604, and the Scotch Liturgy, the 
same ; and that of the Savoy Conference, the same. Thus 
of the six authorized revisions, one is silent on the point, 
and iive declare expressly " February hath XXVIII days," 
without a word to show that the leap-year differs in this 
respect from the common year. 

Thus much in reference to the heading which is placed 
over the month ; if we look next at the column in the Cal- 
endar which numbers the days and prescribes the lessons 
for each day of the month, we find that the First Book of 
Edward the Sixth and all the subsequent Kevisions, with 
only one exception, assign to February only twenty-eight 
days. The exception is the revision of 1662, which was the 
first to introduce the 29th in the column for February, and 
to assign proper lessons for that day. But the authors of 



THE FEAST OF ST. MATTHIAS. 57 

the revision, like all who preceded them, evidently regarded 
the 29th as a natural, and not as a Calendar day ; for they 
give it no letter but leave a blank where others have taken 
upon them to insert a letter which does not belong to the 
day ; and at the head of the month they tell us that Feb- 
ruary hath twenty-eight days ; they did not add, " And in 
" every leap-year twenty-nine days/' and they could not 
make this addition, for the simple reason that they were 
incapable of using the same word, in the same breath, in 
two different senses. 

I have dwelt the longer on this point because of its con- 
nexion with the question touching the proper day in leap- 
years for observing the Feast of St. Matthias — a question 
which was the subject of a curious and very learned con- 
troversy in our mother Church in the early part of the last 
century. The feast is observed in common years on the 
24th of February ; but as the intercalary day in the leap- 
year was believed to grow out of the 24th, and to be in 
effect one with it, the question was naturally mooted 
whether the saint who was himself intercalated, as it were, 
among the Apostles, should be commemorated in the leap- 
year, on the 24th or the 25th of the month. The opinion 
of some eminent ritualists, long before the Reformation, is 
said to have been given in favour of the 24th, but both the 
law and the custom of the Church seem to have determined 
the question very generally in favour of the 25th. Dr. 
Nicholls, the second edition of whose folio on the Common 
Prayer was published in 1712, tells us that the feast had 
been observed in leap-years on the 25th of February for 
more than fixe hundred years before and since the Refor- 
mation ; and he adds that it continued to be so observed 
in the Church of England for more than twenty years after 
the last revision of the Prayer Book (1662) ; but that in 



58 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

the year 1683 a mandate was issued by the then Arc; 
of Canterbury requiring the feast to be observed " u Ditv 
"24th of February forever, whether it be leap-year or 
" not ; " " since which time/' says Dr. Nicholls, " some 
" complying with it (the above-mentioned mandate), others 
" neglecting it, strange confusion has happened in the leap- 
" years." 

The said order of the Archbishop of Canterbury requires 
all vicars and curates to take notice, " That the Feast of 
" St. Matthias is to be celebrated (not upon the 25th of 
"February, as the common almanacs boldly and erro- 
" neously set it), but upon the 24th of February forever, 
" whether it be leap-year or not, as the Calendar in the 
" Liturgie, confirmed by Act of Uniformity, appoints and 
" enjoins. 

" Given at Lambeth House, Feb. 5th, A. D. 1683. 

"W. Cant." 

Before another leap-year came round occurred the Revo- 
lution ; when the Archbishop (Sancroft) was suspended 
from his office in consequence of his refusal to take the 
oath of allegiance to William and Mary. On the order of 
Archbishop Sancroft, Dr. Nicholls remarks : 

"What force this order might have had (had it been 
" legally grounded) during the government of that Arch- 
" bishop, I shall not dispute. But I think it can have 
" little now ; especially if we consider that it is an order 
"contrary to the law of the land, to the canons of the 
" Church, and the immemorial practice thereof, to all the 
"rules of ecclesiastical chronology, and even to the very 
" calendar of the Liturgy which it vouches in its behalf." 

I have no intention to go into the details of the contro- 
versy. The reader who wishes to examine them may con- 



OPINION OF DR. NICHOLLS AND OTHERS. 59 

suit Nicholls and Wheatly on the Common Prayer, the 
learned John Johnson's Vade Mecum, vol. i, pp. 214-217, 
and p. 378, and a treatise (which I have never seen) written 
expressly on the subject by Dr. John Wallis, the famous 
Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford. Dr. Wallis, 
who was a member of the Savoy Conference, as well as 
Archbishop Sancroft, takes the opposite view to the Arch- 
bishop, and agrees on this point with Dr. Nicholls. John- 
son is not positive ; for having argued somewhat doubtfully 
in favour of the 24th, he concludes as follows : " Therefore 
" I should think I had reason to adhere to the emendation 
" made by my venerable patron, Archbishop Sancroft, in 
" this point, had not Dr. Wallis assured us that the Arch- 
" bishop, by the discourse of himself and others on this 
" subject, was satisfied it was his mistake ; and that if he 
"had continued Archbishop, and in good circumstances, 
" till another leap-year, he would have reversed his former 
" order and directed the Almanacs to be printed as for- 
"merly." Wheatly, however, referring to Dr. Wallis's 
statement that Archbishop Sancroft had changed his opin- 
ion on the subject, remarks : " But this I conceive to be 
" only a presumption of the Doctor's." 

In my opinion (for according to the adage " When doc- 
" tors disagree," etc., a disciple may be permitted to ex- 
press an opinion), Dr. Nicholls has satisfactorily sustained 
the several weighty objections which he makes to Arch- 
bishop Sancroft' s order. Wheatly had the advantage of 
writing after Dr. Nicholls, but he has failed, I think, to 
meet his objections. To some extent the argument turns 
on the question whether the 29th of February, which was 
first inserted by the Savoy Conference, was or was not in- 
tended by the Conference to be the intercalary day. Dr. 
Nicholls had remarked : " The last reviewers set down 29 



60 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

"in the outward column and placed lessons against it, 
" which might be read in the bissextile (or leap-year) ; and 
" thus every day had its lesson against it, and everything 
" was plain. But at the same time they are so far from 
" making this the intercalary day, that they do not make 
" it any day at all ; for there is no weekly letter set against 
"it. For d being the letter for the 1st of March, c is 
" placed as the immediate day before it, over against 28, 
" and collateral to it Prid. Kal., by which it is plainly 
" shown that 29 is not the intercalary day, for then there 
" would be another c added ; but a blank being left in 
" these two odd columns, it is manifest that every letter 
" after St. Matthias must be drawn a day lower in the bis- 
" sextile, to give way for a second/ to be inserted there." 

To which plain and unanswerable statement of facts, 
Mr. Wheatly offers in reply the following suppositions : 
First he supposes that the last reviewers of our Liturgy, 
" observing that the 29th of February was in our civil 
" computation generally looked upon as the intercalary 
" day, they thought that it would be more uniform * * * 
" to make it so also in the ecclesiastical computation." 
And then he adds, that " whereas / used to be doubled at 
" the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth days, c, which is the 
" Dominical Letter for the twenty-eighth day, or else d, 
" which is that for the 1st of March, is now supposed to be 
" repeated on the 29th." 

I infer, from what Mr. Wheatly says, that there was in 
his time a growing disposition on the part of churchmeu to 
substitute the civil for the ecclesiastical computation, and 
that thus the 29th of February came to be regarded as the 
intercalary day in compliance with the civil use, though in 
violation of the principles of the calendar. 

On the whole, then, I am apt to think, as regards the 



THE BO 31 AN RULE. 61 

proper day for observing the Feast of St. Matthias in leap- 
years, that the case is one in which the Church has ruled 
one way, and a convenient compliance with the custom of 
the world has drawn us the other way. Not that I would 
by any means recommend a return to the old and, as I 
believe, the authorized custom ; for the main point to be 
aimed at in a case of this sort is uniformity ; and the ob- 
servance of the 24th every year by common consent for 
more than one hundred and fifty years, is itself a custom 
which ought not to be set aside by individuals acting on 
their own notion ; least of all in a case which, like the 
present, is open to argument, and not ruled by the express 
letter of ecclesiastical law. If, indeed, the time predicted 
by our old divines as an inevitable consequence of the cap- 
tious opposition of the Puritans to the Anglican Keforma- 
tion should ever come, when we shall once more fall under 
the sway of the Eoman Pontiff, then we shall return to the 
old usage ; the Koman offices requiring the feast to be 
observed in leap-years on the 25th of February, and the 
present breviaries having as a running title for the Feast 
of St. Matthias, " Die xxiv vel xxv Februarii," and ex- 
pressly directing that the feast shall be celebrated on the 
24th in common years, and on the 25th in a leap-year. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Lunar Cycle — Difficulties in adjusting the Lunar to the Solar time- 
Expedients adopted by the Romans, and by the Greeks — The discov- 
ery of Meton — Explanation of the Metonic Cycle and of the Julian 
Epacts — The Hebrews, their facilities for harmonizing the Solar and 
Lunar time — No Astronomical Cycle until after their dispersion. 

IN secular matters men regulate their affairs by the time 
of the sun, whose diurnal revolution makes the alter- 
nation of day and night, and whose annual revolution 
causes the change of the seasons, and influences the busi- 
ness of life, which varies as the seasons vary. But not so 
in sacred matters ; for we find that among all the nations, 
ancient and modern, with which we are best acquainted, 
the Festivals of Eeligion have been regulated by the course 
and changes of the moon. So it was among the ancient 
Hebrews, Greeks, and Eomans ; and so it is at this day 
among Christians. Now if the twelve lunar months were 
exactly equal to a solar year, so that the lunar and solar 
years always coincided, then the lunar festivals appointed 
for one year would hold the same relation to the sun in 
every following year, and consequently occur in the same 
season of the year as when they were first appointed. In 
fact, however, the twelve lunar months are equal to only 
three hundred and fifty-four days, and thus fall short by 
about eleven days of the solar year. The consequence is 
that they who appointed a feast to be held at the full 



DISORDER OF THE ROMAN CALENDAR. C3 

moon at any given season of the year — say about the vernal 
equinox — would, if they followed only the lunar time, find 
themselves in the course of a few years celebrating the 
same feast in the winter instead of the spring. 

The difficulty is one with which all nations have had to 
contend, and which they adopted various expedients to 
remedy ; the most obvious of which is that of intercalating 
in a series of years as many lunar months as shall be 
equivalent in that series to the excess of the solar over 
the lunar time. 

Plutarch, in his life of Numa Pompilius, tells us that 
the Komans, before Kama's time, " had no notion of the 
" difference between the motions of the sun and the moon ; 
" only that they kept to this account that the whole course 
" of the year contained three hundred and sixty days." 
" But Numa," he adds, " observing that there was eleven 
" days' difference between the lunar and the solar year, for 
" that the moon completed her anniversary course in three 
" hundred and fifty-four days, and the sun in three hun- 
" dred and sixty-five ; to remedy this inequality, he dou- 
" bled the eleven days, and every other year he added an 
"intercalary month of two-and-twenty days, which the 
" Komans called the month of Mercedinus." Livy (lib. i, 
c. 20) tells us that the effect of Numa's intercalation was 
that in every four-and-twentieth year the days of the lunar 
year and those of the solar year coincided. And Macrobius 
(quoted by Twiss on Livy loc. cit.) informs us that the 
Calendar was skilfully arranged by Numa, but was after- 
wards thrown into disorder by the carelessness and ambi- 
tion of the Pontiffs, to whom the work of intercalation was 
entrusted, and who, for political ends and in the interest 
of office-holders, used sometimes to shorten and at other 
times to prolong the year at their pleasure. The conse- 



64 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

quence was that the Calendar, in spite of all former correc- 
tions, had become, in the time of Julius Ceesar, so confused 
that, to use the words of Suetonius in his life of Cgesar, 
" neither the harvest holy days fell out in summer nor the 
" vintage in autumn/' Caesar, as we have said, abolished 
the lunar reckoning and accommodated the year to the 
course of the sun, adding one day in every four years to 
the three hundred and sixty-five days before in use. The 
extent of the disorder which he undertook to remedy may 
be inferred from the fact that in order to set the Calendar 
and prepare, as it were, for a new start, he was obliged to 
make the first year of the new Calendar consist of fifteen 
months ; a year which was long remembered and known as 
" the year of confusion/' 

The Greeks had to contend with the same difficulties, 
and it is to their ingenuity that we are indebted for the 
best way of obviating them. They had been directed by an 
oracle to observe all their solemn sacrifices and festivals 
Kara rpca } according to three ; i. e., as they understood the 
oracle, according to years as reckoned by the sun and ac- 
cording to months and days as reckoned by the moon ; in 
other words, to celebrate their festivals, as nearly as possi- 
ble, at the same season of the year, and at the same moon 
(or lunar month) and day of the moon. The difficulty of 
following the direction is apparent ; for the new moons and 
full moons of every year falling about eleven days earlier 
than on the year next before, the seasons, of course, seemed 
to be constantly receding, so that the festivals which should 
be held in the summer were in danger of being held in the 
spring or winter. The confusion was particularly felt in 
regard to the Olympic games which were appointed to be 
held every fourth year on the full moon next after the 
summer solstice. All classes of society were interested in 



THE CYCLE OF CLEOSTRATUS* G5 

the games, the observance of which depended on the course 
of the moon ; and all classes likewise were interested in 
agriculture and other pursuits of life which were regulated 
by the sun and the changes of the seasons. Hence the ne- 
cessity of so adjusting the Calendar that the full moon on 
which the games were to be celebrated might not part com- 
pany with the summer solstice ; and that they who super- 
intended the games might know the day beforehand, so as 
to send due notice of it to all parts of the country. 

After sundry attempts at intercalation by means of a 
cycle of two years and afterwards of four years, the regula- 
tion was adopted, which continued some time in force, of 
inserting three months in the Calendar once in eight years. 
For assuming that the excess of the solar year over the 
lunar is eleven and a quarter days, the excess in eight years 
(8 x 11J = 90) would amount to ninety days ; so that if 
three months of thirty days each were intercalated once in 
eight years, the solar and lunar years would nearly coincide. 
The difference would be a little more than three days in 
sixteen years, which was sought to be obviated afterwards 
by cancelling one of the intercalary months in every one 
hundred and sixty years. 

In " The Clouds " of Aristophanes, we have an amusing 
proof of the derangement of the affairs of the state conse- 
quent upon the irregularities of the Calendar. The Clouds 
inform the audience that they met the Moon [Diana] and 
were charged by the goddess to say to the people of Athens 
that notwithstanding all the benefits she had conferred on 
them, some of which helped to fill their pockets, since she 
had illuminated their streets gratis these many years, and 
so saved them the expense of torchlight, they yet most un- 
gratefully disordered her feasts and made her odious to the 
other gods, who used to rate her roundly because they were 
5 



66 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

often cheated out of their dinner and compelled to go home 
without regaling themselves on their feasts at the times 
appointed. Moreover, she adds, when you ought to he 
offering sacrifice, you are punishing criminals and "busy in 
lawsuits ; and while we gods are fasting and mourning 
perchance for Memnon or Sarpedon, you, forsooth, are 
pouring out lihations and making merry. And she inti- 
mates, in conclusion, that the gods had lately deposed one 
of the Athenian Eulers of the Feasts, to give them a lesson 
and teach them hetter how to spend their time in future 
according to the Moon. 

Thus the perplexity of the rulers and the confusion of 
the people were made the butt of ridicule by the wits of the 
day.. In the present instance, however, both rulers and 
people were probably in a humour to bear the ridicule with 
complacency, inasmuch as it reflected only on their former 
ignorance, and was thus a tacit compliment to them on 
their proficiency in knowledge. For the second and suc- 
cessful representation of The Clouds is assigned by the 
critics to the year B. C. 424, eight years after the time 
(B. C. 432) when the Athenians had voted a crown of gold 
to Meton for the invention of his famous lunar cycle, which 
at once superseded all former cycles, and promised to re- 
lieve the Greeks from future embarrassments and enable 
them to bring their secular and ecclesiastical years into 
agreement. 

For Meton had happily discovered, or at least he 
was the first to proclaim among the Athenians, that 
in a cycle of nineteen years the conjunctions and oppo- 
sitions of the moon and the sun — in other words, the 
new moons and the full moons — happen at the same 
points of solar time, or rather on the same days in 
every year of the cycle in which they happened in the 



Til E MET NIC CYCLE. 67 

same year of the cycle preceding it. Hence Meton assumed 
for his cycle the period of six thousand nine hundred and 
forty days, which is a fraction more than the number of 
days in nineteen solar years. This number of days, divided 
by 29 J, the average number of days in a moon or lunar 
month, is equal to two hundred and thirty-five moons, with 
a fraction over. Nineteen lunar years of twelve months 
each are equal to two hundred and twenty-eight lunar 
months, so that if we intercalate seven moons, six of thirty 
days each and one of twenty-nine, in the course of the 
nineteen years we have the two hundred and thirty-five 
lunations, which are commensurate with the nineteen solar 
years. To explain : let the Roman figures in the following 
Table stand for the solar years from one to nineteen, and 
the Arabic for lunar months and days : 

28 1+9 20 

VIII. IX. X. 

1+7 18 

XVII. XVIII. XIX. 

In this schedule, each Eoman numeral represents the 
termination, and not, as in the New Style of the Calendar, 
the commencement of a year. Let us suppose, then, that 
the cycle begins from a new moon on the 1st of January ; 
then on the 1st of January following there will have 
elapsed one solar year of three hundred and sixty-five full 
days. Denote this solar year by the Roman numeral I. 
In the same time there will have been twelve moons of 
twenty-nine and a half days each and eleven days over. 
Set the 11 in Arabic figures -over the I, to show that at the 
end of the first year of the cycle the moon is eleven days 
old. At the end of the second solar year there will have 
elapsed another lunar year of twelve moons and another 
eleven days, which, added to the former, will make twenty- 



11 


22 


1+3 


14 25 1+6 17 


I. 


II. 


III. 


IV. V. VI. VII. 


1+1 


12 


23 


1+4 15 26 


XI. 


XII. 


XIII. 


XIV. XV. XVI. 



G8 THE CHUB CM C A L E N D A R . 

two days. Write II in Koman and set over it in Arabic 
22, to denote the age of the moon at the end of the second 
year of the cycle. At the end of the third solar year there 
will have been another lunar year and eleven days over ; 
and the eleven added to the twenty-two days, which was 
the age of the moon at the end of the previous year, makes 
thirty-three, or one month and three days. Write III in 
Eoman and set over it in Arabic 1 + 3 ; to show that at 
the end of the third solar year there have been three lunar 
years and one moon of thirty days, and that the moon is 
then three days old. Proceed in the same way throughout ; 
that is, in order to get the age of the moon at the begin- 
ning of every new year of the cycle add eleven to the age 
of the moon at the beginning of the previous year. If the 
sum is less than thirty, it shows the age of the moon at the 
beginning of the year ; if the sum is more than thirty, 
count the thirty for one month, and the excess above thirty 
will show the age of the new moon ; and the number which 
thus shows the age of the moon at the beginning of each 
new year of the cycle is called the epact of that year. 
Hence it appears that the intercalation is no arbitrary or 
fictitious process, but simply a representation of the actual 
conformity of the lunar to the solar time ; and that an 
intercalated moon is merely a moon which is not included 
in the reckoning of the preceding lunar year. In short, the 
Table shows the relation of the moon to the sun at the 
beginning of every year, and thus furnishes the computist 
with the data for showing the agreement of the solar and 
lunar time through the remainder of the year. 

With the help of this cycle it was easy to construct a 
table for nineteen years to show on what day next after the 
summer solstice the moon would be full in each year. The 
same table would answer for every successive cycle of nine- 



THE GOLDEN NUMBER. 09 

teen years ; and the number of the year of the cycle being 
set opposite to the day of the full moon that falls next after 
the summer solstice, served to designate the day on which 
the Olympic games began. This number was called the 
golden number ; either from the crown of gold which was 
awarded to Meton for his discovery, or from the scheme of 
the festivals being inscribed on a marble pillar in letters of 
gold, or from its great utility. 

The cycle of Meton, though superior to all that preceded 
it, and more useful than any other that was afterwards 
contrived, failed notwithstanding to fulfil the expectations 
it had excited. The period of six thousand nine hundred 
and forty days contains six hours more than nineteen years 
of three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days ; and in 
the course of a hundred years the difference became so per- 
ceptible as to call for a further revision of the Calendar. 
Then it was (B. C. 330) that Calippus, a famous astron- 
omer of that age, invented his period of seventy-six years 
(consisting of four Metonic cycles), which was held in great 
repute in the decline of the Grecian Commonwealth, and to 
which, in another aspect of the subject, we shall again have 
occasion to refer. 

The Hebrews, by God's special appointment, regulated 
their chief festivals by the course of the Moon. " He ap- 
" pointed the Moon for seasons/' as the authorized version, 
or " for certain seasons," as the Prayer Book reads. The 
original, however, may be rendered : " God made the Moon 
" for the congregations or meetings " of His people with 
Him on their solemn feast days ; and the same destination 
of the Moon in the divine purpose is expressed more fully 
in the Book of Ecclesiasticus (xliii, 6, 7) : 

" He made the Moon also to serve in her season, for a 
" declaration of the times and a sign of the world ; 



70 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

" From the Moon is the sign of the Feasts ; a light that 
" decrease th upon her perfection." * 

Accordingly we find that their divine lawgiver appointed 
the Passover to be held on the 14th of the Month Msan or 
Abib — the first month of the sacred or lunar year — about 
the time of the vernal equinox, when the moon was in "her 
" perfection/' and before she began to wane. The adapta- 
tion of this and its dependent feasts to the habits of an 
agricultural people, the very rites they were required to 
perform — as, for example, the offering of the first fruits of 
the wheat harvest at Pentecost, being connected with the 
several seasons of the year — made it imperatively necessary 
and comparatively easy for the Israelites to adjust the lunar 
to' the solar year. In fact, they simply intercalated a lunar 
month whenever they found it necessary ; generally, as we 
have said, once in three or seven times in nineteen years. 

Confined to the narrow boundaries of Palestine, and hav- 
ing no occasion to extend the notice of their feasts beyond 
these geographical limits, or to forecast them for a series 
of years, the Hebrews did not trust to the results of astro- 
nomical observation. Not that they were unskilled in as- 
tronomy ; for the^various phases of the moon pictured on 
the walls of the Sanhedrim proved the absorbing interest 
which their elders felt in this branch of the science, and 
their proficiency in it also after the fashion and measure of 
the times in which they lived. But the judges considering 
the sacred importance of the subject to the nation, though 
they well knew when the new moon would appear, yet, out 
of abundant care, were unwilling to announce the fact, 
except on the positive testimony of at least two credible 
witnesses. If, from the state of the atmosphere or other 
cause, the phasis or first appearance of the moon could not 

* See the original and Arnald's note. 



FESTIVALS OF T H E HEBREWS. 71 

be proved from ocular testimony, the Feast of the New 
Moon was nevertheless appointed by the Sanhedrim and 
observed ; only it was not consecrated, the consecration 
depending under the law on the phasis.* The method of 
determining the fact pursued in the later times of their 
polity attests probably their ancient practice. Towards the 
end of every month the Sanhedrim sent out persons to the 
highest places about Jerusalem to watch for the first ap- 
pearance of the new moon, and when they had discovered 
it, to return and make their report. Great care was taken 
in examining the witnesses ; and the authorities, when 
satisfied of their accuracy, noted the fact with much 
solemnity, and having publicly proclaimed in Jerusalem 
" The Feast of the New Moon ! " The Feast of the New 
Moon ! immediately telegraphed the news, by means of 
beacon-fires from mountain to mountain to all parts of 
Judea ; and to the new moons and full moons all their 
other feasts were adjusted. 

But after the dispersion of the Jews, consequent on the 
Babylonian captivity, this method became impracticable, 
and they were compelled to resort to the use of astronomi- 
cal cycles in order to maintain among themselves a uni- 
formity of practice. Those of the Hebrews who settled 
east of the Euphrates probably availed themselves of the 
facilities afforded for this purpose by the Chaldean astron- 
omers.f But in regard to the Jews of the dispersion in 
Alexandria and Antioch, and the other cities of Egypt, 
Syria, and the lesser Asia, it is certain, says Prideaux, that 

* Con. Lewis Heb. Antiq. and Alexander's Heb. Ritual. London : 
A. M. 5579. 

f " It lias been suspected/' says Dr. Hale, " and not without foundation, 
that the celebrated lunar cycle of 19 years, which Meton introduced into 
Greece, for the adjustment of their lunar year with the solar, was bor- 
rowed from the ancient Jewish tables." 



72 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

they used in the adjustment of their Calendar the cycle of 
eighty-four years ; inasmuch as " several of the fathers of 
" the Christian Church mention this cycle as one that had 
" heen used hy the ancient Jews, and was afterwards bor- 
rowed from them by the primitive Christians, for the 
" fixing of the time of their Easter." Now, as the subse- 
quent history of this cycle is somewhat curious, especially 
in connexion with the Koman and ancient British churches, 
it may be well to note the account which Prideaux gives 
of its origin. " It seems," he says, " to have been made 
" up of the Calippic cycle and the octoeteris (or eight 
" years cycle) joined together." And shortly after, the 
same author adds : " That they (the Jews) might not 
" seem to have anything among them relating to their 
" religion, which was of Heathen usage, they added the 
" octoeteris to this period of seventy-six years, and thereby 
" making it a cycle of eighty-four years, by this disguise 
" rendered it wholly their own ; for no other nation but 
" the Jews alone used this cycle, till it was borrowed from 
" them by the primitive Christians for the same use, that 
" is, to settle the time of their Easter. But the Jews by 
" this addition rather marred than any way mended the 
" matter. For although the period of Calippus fell short 
"of what it intended, that is, of bringing the motions of 
" the two greater luminaries to an exact agreement, yet it 
" brought them within the reach of ^.ve hours and fifty 
" minutes of it. But the addition of the octoeteris did set 
" them at the distance of one day six hours and fifty-one 
"minutes. However, this they used till Kabbi Hillers 
" reformation of their Calendar, which was about the year 
"of our Lord 360." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Early observance of Easter in the Christian Church — The Quartodeciman 
controversy — Subsequent disagreement as to what Sunday should be 
accounted Easter day — Causes of the want of uniformity — Decision 
of the Council of Nice — The Metonic Cycle used by the Alexandrian 
Church — Vacillation of the Roman Church, and its effect on the 
British Churches. 

THERE is no good reason to doubt that the annual, as 
well as the weekly, commemoration of our Lord's Re- 
surrection, was observed by His followers from the time of 
the Apostles. The first dispute among the early Christians 
respecting the time of its observance, interesting in other 
respects, is full proof that, so early as the second century, 
the annual Feast was universally celebrated in the Church 
and accounted an ancient custom. The question was 
whether Easter should be celebrated on the same day on 
which the Jews were commanded to kill the paschal lamb, 
i. e., the fourteenth day of the first lunar month of the 
year on what day soever of the week it chanced to fall, or 
on the Sunday that next followed, that day. The churches 
generally, and particularly the Western churches, observed 
the feast on the first Sunday after the full moon ; while 
the churches of Asia Minor, pleading the prescription of 
St. John, observed it on the day of the full moon. Several 
synods of the West had united in a decree, " that the mys- 
" tery of our Lord's Resurrection should be celebrated on 
" no other than the Lord's Bay." When this decree was 
published, Polycrates, in behalf of himself and the other 
bishops of Asia, addressed a letter to Victor, the then 
Bishop of Rome, in defence of the Eastern tradition. 



74 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

" Whereupon/' says Eusebius, " Victor, the Bishop of the 
" Church of Rome, forthwith endeavoured to cut off the 
" churches of all Asia, together with the neighbouring 
" churches, as heterodox, from the common unity." But 
Victor was not sustained in this extreme measure by the 
Bishops of the West. Irenaaus, in particular, in the name 
of his brethren in Gaul, addressed to him an epistle, in 
which, though he maintains the duty of celebrating Easter 
only on the Lord's day, yet " becomingly also admonishes 
" Victor not to cut off whole churches of God, who observed 
" the tradition of an ancient custom." In further pressing 
on Victor the duty of preserving communion with those 
who differed from him on this point, Irenaaus adds : " And 
" when the blessed Polycarp went to Rome in the time of 
" Anicetus (a predecessor of Victor in the See of Rome), 
" and they had a little difference among themselves like- 
" wise respecting other matters, they immediately were 
" reconciled, not disputing much with one another on this 
"head. For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp 
" not to observe it, because he had always observed it with 
" John the disciple of our Lord, and the rest of the Apos- 
" ties with whom he associated ; and neither did Polycarp 
" persuade Anicetus to observe it, who said that he was 
" bound to maintain the practice of the presbyters before 
" him. Which things being so, they communed with each 
" other ; and in the Church Anicetus yielded to Polycarp, 
" out of respect no doubt, the office of consecrating, and 
" they separated from each other in peace, all the Church 
" being at peace ; both those that observed and those that 
" did not observe, maintaining peace." The result proved 
the wisdom of Irenaaus's course in matters non-essential ; 
the quartodeciman dispute soon expired ; and the Asiatics 
yielded to conciliation and reason a point for which they 



VARIOUS CYCLES USED IN THE CHURCH. 75 

had stiffly contended in opposition to the ill-judged zeal 
and menaces of Victor.* 

But besides the dispute of the Western Christians with 
the Quartodecirnans (as they were called who observed 
Easter on the fourteenth day of the Paschal Moon), there 
was another source of difference as to the time of Easter, 
which, though of less importance, continued for a much 
longer time to trouble the Church. For admitting that 
Easter should be commemorated annually on the Lord's 
day, it was not easy to determine the particular Lord's day 
which should be observed for the purpose. In fact, it 
sometimes happened that the churches of one country kept 
their Easter a week, or even a month, earlier than the 
churches of another country. Anatolius, who nourished in 
the third century, explains the reason of this diversity, 
when he complains " That there were very different and 
" contrary cycles in use in his time ; some following Hip- 
" polytus's cycle of sixteen, others the Jewish cycle of 
" eighty-four, others a cycle of twenty-five, others a cycle 
" of thirty years." In every one of these cycles Easter was 
marked as falling on every year of the cycle, on the same 
day on which it fell before on the same year of the same 
cycle ; and the metropolitans, whose duty it was to give 
notice of Easter to the churches under their charge, ap- 
pointed Easter to be held on the day indicated by their 
respective cycles ; and as the cycles differed in the designa- 
tion of the day, so also did the metropolitans. The temper 
of the Church at large in regard to these differences was 
probably the same as that of the historian Socrates, who 
justly remarks (book v, c. 22) that " Neither the Apostle 
" (St. Paul) nor the Evangelists have anywhere imposed 
" the yoke of servitude on those who have embraced the 

* See the interesting account in Eusebius, book v, chap. 23, 24. 



76 THE CHURCH C ALE X D A R . 

" gospel, but have left Easter and every other feast to be 
" honoured by the gratitude of the recipients of grace." 
But Christian gratitude naturally recoils from deformity 
and confusion, and seeks to express itself in the way of 
beauty and order ; and therefore we cannot but commend 
the piety of Anatolius, and of Isidore, and Clemens, and 
Origen, and others of eminent learning, who endeavoured to 
bring about in this matter a uniformity of j)ractice. " For 
" what," asks the Emperor Constantino, in an epistle to 
the churches, " can be more appropriate, or what more 
" solemn, than that this feast, from which we have received 
" the hope of immortality, should be invariably kept in one 
" order, and for an obvious reason among all ? " Moved 
by this noble sentiment, the same Emperor, after he had 
convoked the Nicene Council for the suppression of the 
Arian heresy, besought the assembled fathers to endeavour, 
after weightier matters had been disposed of, to' establish a 
uniform rule in regard to the observance of this sacred feast. 
The venerable fathers of Nice, in compliance with the 
Emperor's request, took the matter into consideration, and 
the result of their deliberation was that they censured the 
Quartodeciman custom, declared that the feast ought to be 
kept on Sunday, and strongly recommended the observance 
of one rule, with the understanding that it should be left 
to the Bishop of Alexandria to determine every year the 
particular Sunday on which the feast was to be celebrated. 
Further than this, as it seems to me, they did not go. 
The " Paschal Canons," which are said by Mr. Wheatly 
and others to have been then established, although they 
correctly express the mind and usage in which the Catholic 
Church finally concurred, are, I think, incorrectly ascribed 
to the Nicene Council. No such canons are found in the 
proceedings of the Council ; nor, on the supposition that 



THE P A SCHAL CANONS. 77 

such canons were enacted, is it easy to account for the wide 
discrepancies that existed on the subject for the next two 
centuries between the churches of the East and the West. 
The truth seems to be that the Alexandrian Bishops con- 
tinued after the Council of Nice, as they had done before, 
to use the Metonic Cycle, while the Bishops of Eome ad- 
hered to the old Jewish Cycle of eighty-four years, the 
defects of which led to the proposal of various other cycles 
in the West, until at length all were drawn by common 
consent to acknowledge the superiority of the Egyptian 
method. There can be no doubt, however, that the ulti- 
mate sense and usage of the Church are, as has been said, 
correctly stated in the " Paschal Canons " which are thus 
given by Wheatly : 

" 1. That the 21st day of March shall be accounted the 
" vernal equinox. 

" 2. That the full moon happening upon or next after 
" the 21st day of March, shall be taken for the full moon 
" of Nisan. 

" 3. That .the Lord's day next following that full moon 
" be Easter day. 

" 4. But if the full moon happen upon a Sunday, Easter- 
" day shall be the Sunday after." 

In explanation of the second canon, it may be well to 
remark that in consequence of the system of intercalation 
adopted by the Jews, the 1st of Msan might fall within 
fifteen days before or fifteen days after the vernal equinox. 
{See Preface to First Part of Prideaux's Connex., p. xi, 
fol. ed.) 

After the Council of Nice, the Bishop of Alexandria, 
having ascertained the day of the year on which Easter 
would fall, used to give notice of it to the Bishop of Kome, 
who caused it by his deacons to be published in his patri- 



78 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

archal church, on the Epiphany preceding, and then noti- 
fied it by letters to all the metropolitans throughout the 
Christian Church, who, in turn, extended the notice to 
their suffragans. This provision was a great step towards 
the uniformity which all desired to attain. 

" And yet after this it was," says Bingham, " that Cyril 
u still complained of great confusion in the account of 
" Easter in the Church, in the camp, and in the palace ; 
"and that the Eoman and Alexandrian accounts some- 
" times varied a week or a month from each other, as we 
" have seen before, which was owing purely to their differ- 
" ent ways of calculation ; because the Koman Church still 
" proceeded by the old Jewish Cycle of eighty-four, and not 
" by the new Alexandrian Cycle of nineteen. To remedy 
" this confusion, one Victorius, a Frenchman, was employed 
" by Hilarius, Archdeacon of Koine, to make a new paschal 
" canon ; but neither did his attempt succeed ; for though 
" he took in the Alexandrian Cycle of nineteen, yet still he 
" retained so much of the Koman as made the variation of 
" Easter Sunday sometimes a week and sometimes a month 
" between them. And no effectual cure was found for this, 
" till Dionysius Exiguus, A. D. 525, brought the Alexan- 
" drian Canon entire into the use of the Koman Church." 

The "Alexandrian Canon," in the use of which the 
Catholic Church finally acquiesced with entire unanimity, 
was founded on the Lunar Cycle of Meto (reduced from 
6940 days to 6939 days 18 hours), and the Egyptian 
Christians, in adapting it to the observance of Easter, may 
be said to have been themselves the first " to spoil the 
" Egyptians." * 

* A customary phrase among the Fathers to justify the appropriation 
of the arts, science and literature of the Heathen to the use of the Chris- 
tian Church. 



VA RIA T I X F THE R 31 A X CHURCH. r < 9 

Having been drawn off with difficulty from the use of 
the Jewish Cycle, the Koinan Church, as may be naturally 
supposed, was not a little hampered by its own precedents 
in the efforts which it afterwards made to recall the British 
Christians from the same use. It is curious, indeed, to 
observe the pious dexterity with which she retraced her 
steps, assumed the new way with the same confidence with 
which she had insisted on the old, and even forced it upon 
her followers with the same assertion of infallible authority 
founded on the tradition of St. Peter. That eminent chro- 
nologer and antiquary, Bishop Lloyd, in his " Account of 
" Church Government as it was in Great Britain and Ire- 
land when they first received the Christian Religion," 
gives us a graphic description of the disputes of the Roman 
See on this subject with the British and Irish Churches. 

Having shown that Christianity was in a flourishing 
state in Britain long before it was established at Rome 
under Constantine ; that the South Picts and the Irish 
were converted from idolatry to the Christian faith, the 
former by St. Nennianus, and the latter by St. Patrick, 
both Britons, in the early part of the fifth century, and 
that the North Picts were, in like manner, converted from 
Heathenism about the year 560 by St. Columba of the 
Irish Church, the author takes occasion to say that during 
the hundred years and more that intervened between the 
conversion of the Irish and that of the North Picts, there 
was almost no possibility of communication between Rome 
and the Britons in consequence of Italy being overrun by 
the barbarous nations. In this interval of time, he remarks, 
the Roman Church was so much altered from what it was 
formerly, that it was scarce to be known by them that had 
not seen it in many years ; it had grown very much in 
stature, and had, as it were, another countenance in the 



bO THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

outward face of its communion. Hence when, some time 
after, " Pope Gregory the First would make Austin the 
" Monk their Archbishop, these British Christians, contin- 
" uing in their primitive liberty, told him plainly, £ We 
" i will not be thy subjects ; ' they knew of no authority he 
" had over them/' The author then proceeds as follows : 

" In like manner, within that interval of time, there were 
many things changed in the Eoman Communion, which, 
after they had continued an age or two in their Church, 
themselves did not know, or would not own, to be altera- 
tions. This appeared especially in the rule that they had 
for the finding out of Easter, and of all their other movea- 
ble feasts. They found it by a cycle of eighty-four years, 
which was called the Roman Account, so lately as in Pope 
Leo's time. The Scots and South Picts used the same 
cycle from the time of their conversion ; and so did the 
Britons, without any manner of alteration. But about 
eighty years after the renting of the Roman Empire, the 
Romans, having left off the use of that cycle, took up an- 
other of nineteen years ; which, though it was better in 
many respects, yet was new in these parts, and made a 
great difference from the former. And when the Romans 
had used this new cycle another eighty years, coming then 
to have to do with these Northern Nations, they would 
needs have imposed the use of it upon them, as a condition 
of their Communion. They did, indeed, face them clown 
with two things which were palpably false : one was that 
the Romans had received their cycle by tradition from St. 
Peter ; the other, that it was made use of everywhere, 
except in these islands. To the first of these assertions, 
the Scots, for want of knowing better, opposed only the 
authority of St. John for their cycle ; as to the other, they 
could not tell what to say ; whereas, in truth, though they 
did not know it, the Roman Account came but an age or 
two before from Alexandria, and was not yet received in all 
the Western Church, not in some part of France in par- 
ticular ; but that in use among the Scots was the same 
cycle that they and the Britons had ever used since their 
conversion, and it was the same that was anciently used in 
the Roman Church. 

" By these instances, it sufficiently appears that though 
Rome had not yet proceeded so far as to make new Articles 
of Faith (for that was not done by any act of the Church, ; 



THE ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH. 81 

that we read of, in a thousand years after Christ's time), 
yet she had made great alterations in other things, and 
made bold to impose them on other churches as conditions 
of her Communion. It appears that these Northern 
Churches were shut out of her Communion ; they were 
called the Schismaticks of Britain and Ireland ; for no 
other reason, but only because they would not receive these 
alterations, nor submit to the authority by which they 
were imposed. They, on the other hand, were not willing 
to break Communion, but continued it with them that kept 
Easter with the Romans, as some did without abetting 
their usurpation. Thus the British Bishops joined in the 
office of Ordination with Wini, a Saxon, that was made 
Bishop in France. Thus the Scots helpt Birinus to con- 
vert the West Saxons, though he had been made Bishop in 
Italy. Nay, they join'd in Communion with them of Kent, 
that had been converted immediately from Rome ; and 
never broke with them till they were forced to it, as I shall 
shew in due place. Wheresoever they found the Roman 
tyranny abetted against them, there, indeed, they stood 
upon their terms, and laid the schism upon them that 
were the cause of it, and would no more communicate with 
them than with Pagans, as Bede tells us. The Scots of 
South Ireland stood thus little more than thirty years after 
Austin came over. All the other Scots and the Picts held 
out near a hundred years longer. But the Britons much 
above two hundred years. And yet the churches that stood 
at this distance from Rome, all the while continued com- 
munion with each other, and kept their religion the same in 
all points that it was when the Roman Empire stood, and 
the same that was anciently in the purer Roman Church." 

It would be foreign to the design of the present treatise 
to dwell further on the independence of the ancient British 
Church, of which the Easter controversy is but one proof 
among many. The subject is treated with his usual prod- 
igality of learning by Stillingfleet — Ecclesise Anglicana3 
defensor semper invictus — in his Origines Britannicse, " by 
" far the best work," says Mr. Thackeray, " which has 
" appeared on the subject." * The theological student 

* Preface to " Researches into the Ecclesiastical and Political State 
" of Ancient Britain under the Roman Emperors," by the Rev. Francis 
Thackeray. London : 1843. 
6 



82 TEE CEURCE CALENDAR. 

will do well to consult the fourth chapter of Bishop Stil- 
lingfleet's work, and particularly the concluding part of it 
(pp. 215-232), which relates to the Public Service of the 
British Churches, their difference from the Koman Offices, 
and the conformity of the Liturgy of the Keformed English 
Church to the ancient British Offices ; a conformity, it 
may be said in passing, which is more strikingly exemplified 
in the American than in the English Liturgy. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Correspondence of St. Leo and Proterius — Rival schemes for finding 
Easter forever — The Victorian Period or Paschal Cycle — The Diony- 
sian Canon — Limits of the Paschal Week — The Calendar according 
to the Old Style completed — Reprint of the same, with directions for 
using it. 

AMONG the letters of St. Leo, who was chosen Bishop 
. of Home A. D. 440, is one to the Emperor Marcian 
concerning the day on which Easter should be kept in the 
year 455. Having adverted to the fact that the Council of 
Nice had made it the duty of the Bishop of Alexandria to 
find out the Feast of Easter every year and make it known 
to the Koman See, that thence notice might be given to 
distant churches, St. Leo adds that Theophilus had made 
a Calendar for an hundred years, beginning at the year 
380, but that the Easter for the seventy-sixth year of this 
Calendar, i. e., for the year 455, fell upon an extraordinary 
day, too much advanced in the month of April ; and he 
therefore beseeches Marcian to recommend that an exact 
calculation be made in order that all churches may this 
year celebrate this feast at the same time. In another 
letter, St. Leo thanks the Emperor Marcian for having sent 
a person to Alexandria, that he might inform himself ex- 
actly of the time when Easter was to be celebrated. In yet 
another letter to the same Emperor, he thanks him for the 
inquiry he had made concerning the time of keeping Easter, 
tells him that he had received the letters of Proterius, the 
then Bishop of Alexandria, and that for the sake of peace 
and unity he would follow his judgment, though he is not 



84 ST. LEO AND PROTERIUS. 

persuaded of his being in the right. And St. Leo was as 
good as his word ; for among his letters is a circular to the 
Bishops of Gaul and Spain, under date of July 28th, 454, 
in which, waiving his own judgment in the matter, he gives 
them notice " That the Feast of Easter in the next year 
" should be kept on the 22d of April ; the day determined 
"on by the Bishop of Alexandria." Not having access to 
the full correspondence, I cannot say what day St. Leo had 
fixed on for Easter day 455 ; but as the objection was that 
Easter day, according to the calculation of Proterius, was 
" too far advanced in April," and as the Koman Calendar 
(0. S.) makes Easter A. D. 455 fall on the 24th of April, 
it would seem that the rule of St. Leo is not sanctioned by 
Pius the Ninth, though doubtless his charity is approved. 

The letter of Proterius, who was at that time the Bishop 
of Alexandria, on the Easter of 455, is preserved in the 
correspondence of St. Leo. In this he professes himself of 
a contrary judgment to St. Leo, and enters into a long and 
abstruse discussion to convince his Holiness that the 22d 
of April of that year is the day on which Easter ought to 
be kept. One is amused to find the learned Grecian, in 
conclusion, cautioning his Roman brother, " That he should 
" not venture to have this letter turned into Latin, because 
" it is very hard for men that do not understand the matter 
" well to express exactly so perplexed and intricate a debate 
" in Latin." * 

Notwithstanding the wholesome direction of the Council 
of Nice that the calculation of Easter should be referred 
every year to the Bishop of Alexandria, various cycles 
sprang up, prompted not so much by an impatience of 
control as by the desire of a more expeditious method, and 

* See a synopsis of the correspondence in Du Pin, vol. iii, part ii (cen- 
tury 5th), pp. 99-101. 



THE PASCHAL CYCLE. 85 

one which should determine the time of the feast for some 
years in advance. The historian Eusebius led the way ; 
Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, drew up a table for 
the Emperor Theodosius, determining Easter for a hundred 
years to come ; and Cyril, his nephew and successor, in- 
vented a period of five lunar cycles, or ninety-five years, 
which was much commended. These are now rather valu- 
able as showing the genius of the age than as throwing 
light on the final adjustment of the Calendar. To clear 
this matter, it is only necessary to direct attention to two 
points — 1. The Victorian period ; and 2. What is com- 
monly called the Dionysian Canon. 

1. The Victorian period, better known as the Paschal 
Cycle, is the combined product of the number of years (28) 
of the Solar Cycle, and the number of years (19) of the 
Lunar Cycle, and is consequently equal to five hundred and 
thirty-two years. It is called the Victorian Period, from 
its author Victorius, a native of Aquitaine, and an eminent 
mathematician. It is called the Paschal Period, because, 
combining the phenomena of the Solar and Lunar Cycles, 
it exhibits them in harmony, and enables us, by setting the 
days of the moon parallel to the days of the solar week, to 
find Easter day forever. For at the end of every iive hun- 
dred and thirty-two years, assuming the correctness of the 
Cycle, the days of the moon must fall on the same days as at 
the beginning ; and knowing the day of the week on which 
the Paschal Moon is full, the Dominical Letter for the year 
directs us to Easter day. This discovery was all that was 
wanting to make the Calendar perpetual ; and it soon led 
the way to the practice which has ever since been followed 
of inserting two columns in the Calendar parallel with the 
days of the month ; the one (which, indeed, had been in 
use before) affixing to the several days of the week their 



86 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

proper letters, each of which becomes in its turn a Domin- 
ical Letter ; and the other enabling us to ascertain the age 
of the moon on each day of the solar month. 

2. But the Easter problem was not yet solved, nor was 
the complete solution of it achieved by Yictorius. For, 
as Bingham says, there was among those that used the 
Victorian Period, a variation, sometimes of a week and 
sometimes of a month, in the time of observing Easter ; 
nor was the desired uniformity established until the adop- 
tion of what is commonly called " The Dionysian Canon," 
but which is really nothing more than the old Alexandrian 
Canon respecting the limits of the Easter week ; the differ- 
ent usages in regard to which I now go to explain. 

The law of Moses enjoined that the Passover should be 
slain on the 14th of the Lunar Month Abib, and that the 
day on which the Passover was slain should be the begin- 
ning of a holy week. For in the Book of Exodus, imme- 
diately after the institution of the Passover, it is added, 
" Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread. • * * In 
" the first day there shall be an holy convocation to you." 
Now the seven clays of unleavened bread were counted 
from the day of the full moon (on whatever day of the civil 
week that chanced to be), and formed, of course, the third 
week of the lunar month. Easter, as was confessed by all 
Christians after the decay of the Quartodeciman party 
above mentioned, fell on the Sunday of this week, which 
might be any day of the lunar week from the first to the 
seventh ; so that the Christian Feast of seven days, which 
we call Easter week, always began in the third week of the 
moon on Sunday. So far there seems, after the Council of 
Nice, to have been no difference of opinion ; all agreeing 
that Easter Sunday was the Sunday after the full moon ; 
in other words, the Sunday which fell in the third week of 



LIMITS OF THE PASCHAL WEEK. 87 

the moon. But as to the limits of this week, there was no 
such agreement ; on the contrary, there were three several 
theories, each of which had numerous patrons and follow- 
ers ; these made the week extend — the first from the 16th 
to the 22d, both inclusive ; the second from the 14th to the 
20th, both inclusive ; the third from the 15th to the 21st, 
both inclusive ; and hence it happened that there was occa- 
sionally a difference of a week or even a month in their 
celebrations ; and as the Paschal month was the beginning 
of a year, the mistake might have the effect of throwing 
two E asters into one year. 

The oldest rule was, I believe, that of those who made 
the 16th and 22d the limits of the third week, and who 
consequently never celebrated Easter before the 16th of the 
moon. The Koman Church at first and for a long time 
adhered to this rule in connexion with its cycle of eighty- 
four years ; and the reason given for the rule was that 
Good Friday, or the anniversary of the Crucifixion, might 
never fall before the 14th of the moon when the typical 
Passover was offered, as it might have fallen had they 
celebrated Easter on the 15th. They who made the 14th 
and 20th the limits of the week seem to have adhered to 
the letter of the law (Ex. xii, 17) without well considering 
its meaning. The British and the old Irish (afterwards 
called the Scottish) Church clung to this rule with great 
tenacity, not entirely surrendering it until the ninth cen- 
tury, and for their adhesion to it were sometimes called 
Quartodecimans ; not because (as some of the learned have 
erroneously supposed) they kept their Easter on the 14th 
day of the Moon — for that usage had been effectually ex- 
ploded by the Council of Nice— but because they made the 
14th of the Moon one of the limits of the week in which 
Easter fell. The third rule, and that which ultimately 



88 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

prevailed, was to regard the week as extending from the 
15th of the Moon to the 21st, both inclusive, and to begin 
the Easter festival on the Sunday of that week. And this 
rule has the best support from Scripture ; for although the 
14th of Nisan is said to be the day on which the Passover 
was slain, yet it will be found, on careful examination, that 
the 14th was rather a day of preparation, and that the 
Passover was slain on the evening following the 14th, that 
is, properly speaking, on the evening or beginning of the 
15th. Moreover, the feast of unleavened bread is said to 
begin on that self-same day on which God brought the 
Israelites out of Egypt, and this day, as may be inferred 
from the account in Exodus, is elsewhere (Num. xxxiii, 3d) 
expressly said to be the 15th of the Moon. 

This is the rule which was followed by the Bishops of 
Alexandria, who, reckoning Easter day to be the Sunday 
which fell between the 15th and 21st of the Moon, besides 
having the better cycle, had the further advantage of a 
correct rule for its application. The Koman Church, on 
the other hand, erred in both respects ; first, by adhering 
to the old Jewish Cycle ; and secondly, after it was brought 
off from that by Yictorius A. D. 457, by assigning wrong 
limits to the Paschal week ; nor was it until A. D. 527 
that, under the lead of the little Scythian, Dionysius 
Exiguus, as he is generally called, it was cured of this 
error, and taught what it now teaches to be the true way 
of finding Easter. The Komans, indeed, contended stoutly 
both for their cycle and their rule of applying it, but they 
were at length obliged to yield, first the one point and then 
the other, to their more skilful brethren of Alexandria. 

The knowledge of these different usages in regard to the 
bounds of the Paschal week is necessary to a correct under- 
standing of the disputes which prevailed during the sixth, 



BRITISH AND OTHER USAGES. 89 

seventh and eighth centuries, between the Roman Church 
on the one hand, and the Gallic and British Churches on 
the other. During these centuries the Romans, following 
Dionysius, reckoned the Paschal week from the 15th day 
of the Moon to the 21st, both inclusive ; the Gauls, follow- 
ing Yictorius, reckoned from the 16th to the 22d, and the 
Britons, following Sulpicius Severus, reckoned from the 
14th to the 20th of the Moon, all inclusive. 

The experience of more than a thousand years has veri- 
fied the anticipation of the author of the Paschal Cycle ; 
viz., that it shows the day (be it what day it will) to be the 
same day of the year, month, moon, and week that it was 
five hundred and thirty-two years ago, and will be five 
hundred and thirty-two years hence ; and has taught the 
Church so to amend the Calendar founded on this period 
that we may now designate the day on which Easter will 
fall five thousand years hence with the same certainty that 
we may name to-day the hour at which the sun will rise 
to-morrow. 

Having thus traced, as clearly as I could, the origin of 
the Church Calendar, I shall now give the Calendar to the 
readers as it stood in our English Prayer Books before 
1752, when it was revised and made to conform to the New 
or Gregorian Style as nearly as the House of Hanover per- 
mitted, or the temper of the English people at the time 
rendered expedient. It is the same as the traditionary 
Calendar set forth in the first Prayer Book of Edward YI 
and in subsequent Revisions, and is doubtless one of the 
links which bind us to the Church of the Venerable Bede. 
Of course I am speaking of the Calendar proper, and not 
of the Saints' Days, Lessons, and other accessories. 

The reader is requested to take notice that according to 
the Old Style of the Calendar Easter day is found by 



90 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

•means of the Golden Numbers ; and not by the system of 
epacts which is proper to the New Style, nor by the fusion 
of the two which distinguishes the English and American 
Prayer Books. 

The Golden Numbers, for the origin of which see pages 
67-69, are the numbers from 1 to 19, both inclusive, which 
denote the years of the Metonic Cycle ; which, having su- 
perseded all other cycles for the adjustment of the lunar 
and solar time, has come to be called, by way of eminence, 
The Lunar Cycle. To find the Golden Number for a given 
year of any era is merely to find how many times the Lunar 
Cycle has revolved since the beginning of that era. The 
Christian era began one year after the commencement of 
one of these cycles ; and for this reason it is that the rule 
to find the Golden Number for a year of the Christian era 
directs us to add one to the given year before dividing by 
19, the number of years in the Cycle. The quotient, 
when the division is made, shows the number of cycles that 
have revolved since the beginning of the Christian era ; the 
remainder, if there be one, is the Golden Number for the 
given year ; or, if there be no remainder, 19 is the Golden 
Number. 

In our Church Calendar, the Golden Numbers are also 
called the Primes ; probably because they serve to indicate 
the prime ; a word which was formerly used to signify the 
new moon, but which in this sense is now obsolete. 

The Golden Numbers or Primes are contained in the 
first column of the Calendar. They are not all, it will be 
observed, used in any one month ; neither are they placed 
in numerical order ; but only so many of them are used in 
the Calendar for any one month as are needed to show the 
new moons which, in the course of the nineteen years of the 
Cycle, fall in that month. The order in which they are 



EASTER ACCORDING TO THE OLD STYLE. 91 

put has reference to the day of the new moon : III, for 
example, being set opposite to the first day of March be- 
cause in every third year of the Cycle the new moon falls 
on the first day of March, and XI being set opposite to the 
third day of March because in every eleventh year of the 
Cycle there is a new moon on the third day of March. So 
throughout, the Golden Number for the year is set in every 
month opposite to the day of the neiu moon which happens 
in that month. 

To find Easter for a given year according to the Old 
Style, enter the Calendar at the eighth day of March, and 
run your eye down till you come to the Golden Number for 
the year, opposite to which is the day of the Paschal new 
moon, the fourteenth day from which (both inclusive) is 
the day of the Paschal full moon ; and the next following 
day, which has opposite to it the Dominical Letter (Old 
Style) for the year, is Easter day ; or if the day of the full 
moon be Sunday, then Easter day is the Sunday after. 

Kequired Easter day for 1470, the Golden Number being 
VIII, and G the Dominical Letter. Opposite to April 5th 
is the Golden Number VIII, and the 14th day from April 
5th is April 18th, and G is next found opposite to April 
22d ; which was Easter day in 1470. 



92 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 



€ f) e EaienQar 



****& 



JANUARY HATH XXX I DAYS. 
THE MOON HATH XXX. 



g 


■d 

1 

a 

o 

m 

1 


o 

C 
□Cl 

A 


Days of the mo. 
according to 
the Roman 

computation. 


FESTIVALS AND OTHEK 
HOLT DATS. 


MORNING 

graver. 


EVENING 
Pragcr. 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


i Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


*2 


K-lend 


Circumcision of our Lord. 












2 


*> 


4 No. 




Gen. lMatt. 1 


Gen. 2 


Rom. 1 


10 


3 


c 


3 No. 




3 


2 


4 


2 




4 


a 


Pr. No. 




5 


s 


6 


3 


19 


5 


e 


Nona. 




7 


4 


8 


4 


8 


6 
7 


f 
9 


8 Id 

7 Id. 


Epiphany of our Lord. 


9 


5 


12 


5 


16 


8 ! ^l 


6 Id 


Lucian, Priest and Martyr — 


13 


6 


14 


6 


5 


9 6 


5 Id. 




15 


7 


1G 


1 




10 c 


4 Id. 




17 


8 


18 


8 


13 


\\d 


3 Id. 




19 


9 


20 


9 


2 


12 <? 


Pr. Id. 




21 


10 


22 


10 




13,/ 


Idjs — •• 


Hilary, Bishop, and Confes. . . 


23 


11 


24 


11 


*10 


ng 


19 Kl. Febr. 




25 


12 


2G 


12 




15\A 


18 Kl. 




27 


13 


28 


13 


18 


16 ft 


17 Kl. 




29 


14 


30 


11 


7 


«U 


16 Kl. 




31 


15 


32 


13 




18; e* 


15 Kl 


Prisca, Rom. Yirg. and Hart. 


33 


16 


34 


1:; 


15 


19 e 


14 Kl. 




35 


17 


37 


1 Cor. 1 


4 


20 f 


13 Kl 


Fabian, B. of Rome, and M . . 


38 


18 


39 


2 




21 g 


12 Kl 


Agnes, Rom. Yirg. and Mart. 


40 


19 


41 


3 


12 


22 .4 


11 Kl 


Vincent, Span. Deac. and M. . 


42 


20 


43 


4 


1 


23 b 


10 Kl. 




44 


21 


45 


5 




21 c 


9K1. 




46 


22 


47 


C 


9 


25(7 


SKI 


Conversion of S. Paul. 












23 e 


7K1. 




48 


23 


49 


7 


17 27 / 


6K1. 




50 


24 


Exod. 1 


8 


6,23? 


5K1. 




Exod. 2 


25 


3 


9 


29 


1 


4K1. 




4 


26 


5 


10 


*13 3D; 


b 


3K1 


K. Charles Martyr 


+6 


27 


■v 


11 


3 31 

i I 


c 


Prid. Kl. 




8 


28 


9 


12 



[*The figures to which the asterisk is affixed are known to be erroneous, but as they 
were found in the Sealed Books editors did not feel at liberty to alter them, and conse- 
quently they were continued in all the old editions of the Prayer Book, and are so given 
in Keeling's Litnrgias Britannicae. For 2, however, read 3 ; for 10 read 11, and for 13 
read 14. The same Golden Number never occurs twice in the same lunar month.] 

t Note, that Exodus vi. is to be read only to verse 14. 



FEB B UAR Y. 



93 



Cde i&alcnuar 



FEBRUARY HATH XXVIII DAYS. 



THE MOON HATH XXX. 



8 

to 


I 1 * 

o « 
S * 


s of the mo. 
coroing to 
e Roman 
imputation. 


FESTIVALS AND OTHER 


MORNING EVENING 

iJ3ra;ifr. ^pranrr. 


s 


o o 

32 02 


HOLT DATS. 


I 








1 I 






1 Lesson. 2 Lesson. ! 1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


o a A 


A 




1 




I'd 


Kalend 

4 No 


Fast 


1 
Exod.lOMark 1 


1 Cor. 13 


11 2 <? 


.'urlfi of Mary tho Bi Virgin 




2 ! 


14 


i 
19 3 / 


3 No. 




12 


1 
3! 13 


15 


8 


4 £7 


Pr. No. 




14 


4 15 


16 




5 A 


Non- 


Agatha, Sicilian V. & M 


16 


5 17 2 Cor. 1 


16 


6 6 


8 Id. 




18 


6j 19i 2 


5 


7 c 


7 Id. 




20 


7 2l| 3 




8.d 


6 Id. 




22 


8 23 4 


13 *9J e 


5 Id. 




24 


9 ! 32| 5 


2 10/ 


4 Id. 




33 


10 341 6 


In \g 


3 Id. 




Levit.18 


11 Levit.19 7 


10 12-4 


Pr. Id. 




20 


12 2C| 8 


13 b 


idus. 




Num. 11 


13 Num. 12 9 


18 14 ! c 


16 Kl. Mart. 


Valentine, Bish. & Martyr 


13 


14 14! 10 


t|l5,d 


15 Kl. 




16 


15 17 : 11 




16 € 


14 Kl. 




20 


16 21 12 


15 


17/ 


13 Kl. 




22 


L.i.to 39 


23: 13 


4 


18 \g 


12 Kl. 




24 


i., 39 


25 Galat. 1 




19U 


11 Kl. 




27 


2 


so; 2 


12j20|fi 


10 Kl. 




31 


3 


32. 3 


121 c 


9K1. 




35 


4 


36 1 4 


22 d 


8K1. 




Deut. 1 


5 


Deut. 2' 5 


9 23 <? 


7 Kl 

6K1 


Fast 


3 


6 

7 


4 1 6 


84/ 
17 25 g 


3i Mstthiasj Apost. & Mart 


Epkes.l 


5K1. 




5 


8 


6| 2 


6 26 A 


4K1. 




7 


9 


8: 3 


27 6 


3K1. 




9 


10 


10 4 


14 28 1 c 


Pr. Kl. 




11 


11 12] 5 


29 






13 


Matth.7 14 Rom. 12 



[The headings to the several columns, except those for Morning and Evening Prayer, 
and also the notes in brackets, have been supplied by the present editor.] 



94 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 



Ci)e Ealenoar 



MARCH HATH XXXI DAY S 
THE MOON HATH XXX. 



w 
O 


I 


o 


the mo. 
ling to 
Roman 
itation. 


FESTIVALS AND OTHER 


MORNING 
graaer. 


EVENING 

Prajjrr. 


g 


o 


2 


o o S* 


HOLY DATS. 












2 
"o 


X X -X O O K 




1 Lesson, 


2 Lesson. 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


<2 


A 

1 


q a 












3 


tf Kalend. 


David, Archb. of Menevia. 


Deut. 15 


Luke 12 


Deut. 16 


Ephes.6 




2 


e 6 No. 


Cedde or Chad., B. of Litch. 


17 


13 


18 


Philip. 1 


11 


3 


/ 5 Xo. 




19 


14 


20 


2 




4 


g 4 N J. 




21 


15 


22 


3 


19 


5 


.13 No. 




24 


16 


25 


4 


8 


6 


b Pr. No. 




20 


17 


27 


Colos. 1 




' 


• 


Nonas. 


Perpetua, Mauritan. Martyr. 


28 


18 


29 


2 


16 


8 


<j 


8 Id. 




30 


19 


31 


3 


5 


9 


e 


7 Id. 




32 


20 


33 


4 




10 


f 


6 Id. 




34 


21 


Josh. 1 


1 Thes.l 


13 11 


^5 Id. 




Josh. 2 


22 


3 


2 


2 


12 


J 4 Id. 


Greg. M. B. of Rome, & C. 


4 


23 


5 


3 




13 


b 3 Id. 




6 


24 


7 


4 


10 


14 


c Pr. Id. 




8 John 1 


9 


5 




15 


d Idusi 




10 


2 


23 


2Thes.l 


18 


16 


e 17 Kl. Apr. 




24 


3 


Judg. 1 


2 


7 


17 


/MKL 




Judg. 2 


4 


3 


3 




18 g 15 EX 


Edw. K. of the West Sax. 


4 


5 


5 


IThn. 1 


15 


19 1 14 Kl. 




6 


6 


7 


o q 


4 


20 


6 13 Kl. 




8 


7 


9 


4 




21 


c 


12 KL 


Benedict, Abbot 


10 


8 


11 


5 


12 


•22 


ri 


11 Kl. 




12 


9 


13 


6 


1 


23 


« 


10 KL 




14 


10 


15 


2 Tim. 1 




24 


/ 


SKI. 


Fast. 


16 


11 


17 


2 


9 


25 


» 


8K1. 


Annunciation of Mary. 




12 




3 




26 


,1 


7KL 




18 


13 


19 


4 


17 


2T 


5 


6K1. 




20 


14 


21 


Titus 1 


6 


2S 


« 


5KL 




Rnth 1 


15 


Ruth 2 


2,3 




29 


d 


4K1. 




3 


16 


4 


Philem. 


14 


30 


« 


3K1. 




1 Sam. 1 


17 


1 Sam. 2 


Heb. 1 


3 


. 


/iPr.Kl. 




3 


18 


4 


2 



APRIL, 



95 



Cf)e EalenBar 



APRIL HATH XXX DAYS 
THE MOON HATH XXIX. 





f= 


X 


the mo. 
ling to 
Roman 
itation. 




MORNING 


EVENING 


ED 

o 


C 

o 

S 


<x> 

> 


FE STEALS AND OTHER 


IPragcr. 


Pragtr. 


pj 


=»- 




CO 


«" S a, 


HOLY DATS. 








a: 


o o a 

moos 












"o 


.-3 


>> 






\ lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


o 


R 


p 


P 














1 


r/ 


Kalend. 




1 Sam. 5 


John 19 


1 Sam. 6 


Hebr. 3 


11 


2 


i 


4 No. 




7 


20 


8 


4 




3 


b 


3 No. 


Richard, B. of Chichester. 


9 


21 


10 


5 


19 


4 


c 


Pr. No. 


S. Ambrose, Bish. of Milan. 


11 


Acts 1 


12 


6 


8 


5 


d . 


Nons. 




13 


2 


14 


7 


16 


6 


e 


8 Id. 




15 


3 


16 


8 


5 


7 


f 


7 Id. 




17 


4 


18 


9 




8 





6 Id. 




19 


5 


20 


10 


13 


9 


A 


5 Id. 




21 


6 


22 


11 


2 


10 


b 


4 Id. 




23 


7 


24 


12 




11 


c 


3 Id. 




25 


8 


26 


13 


10 


12 


a 


Pr. Id. 




27 


9 


28 


James 1 




13 


e 


Idus 




29 


10 


30 


2 


18 


14 


f 


18 Kl. May. 




31 


11 2 Sam. 1 


3 


7 


15 


g 


17 Kl. 




2 Sam. 2 


12 


3 


4 




16 


A 


16 Kl. 




4 


13 


5 


5 


15 


17 


b 


15 Kl. 




6 


14 


7 


IPet. 1 


4 


18 


c 14 Kl. 




8 


15 9 


2 




19 


a |l3 Kl. 


Alphege, Archb. of Cant. 


10 


16 1 11 


3 


12 


20 


e 12 Kl. 




12 


n\ 13 


4 


1 


21 


/ 11 Kl. 




14 


18 


15 


5 




22 


~g 


10 Kl. 




16 


19 


17 


2 Pet. 1 


9 


23 


A 


9K1. 


S. George, Martyr. 


18 


20 


19 


2 




24 


b 


8K1. 




20 


21 


21 


3 


17 


25 


c 


7K1. 


S. Mark, Evang, & Martyr. 




22 


1 John 1 


6 


26 


d 


6K1. 




22 


23 23 


2 




27 


e 


5K1. 




24 


241 King 1 


3 


14 


28 


f 


4K1. 




1 King 2 


25 


3 


4 


3 


29 


g 


3K1. 




4 


26 


5 


5 




30 


A 


Pr. Kl. 




6 


27 


7 


2,3Joh. 



96 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 



Cf)e Ealentiar 



MAY HATH XXXI DAYS 



THE MOON HATH XXX. 



O 


• 

1 

a 




§;ij 

l|g| 


FESTIVALS AND OTHER 


MORNING 
$ragcr. 


EVENING 

13ragcr. 




"3 


'c 

to 


il 1 

OD O O C 


HOLT DATS. 






s 

o 


1 
1 Lesson, 2 Lesson. 


i Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


© 


P 
1 


5 

b 


p 












2 


Kalend. 
6 No. 


3. Philip & S. Jacob, Apost, & 
[Mart. 






Jucle. 




2 


c 


i.King8Acts 28 


i. King 9 Rom. 1 


1R 


3 


a 


5 No. 


Invention of the Cross. 


10 Matth. 1 


11 


2 


8 


4 


6 


4 No. 




12 


2 


13 


3 




5 


/ 


3 No. 




14 


3 


15 


4 


16 


6 


9 


Pr. No. 


S. John, Evang. ante Port Lat. 


16 


4 


17 


5 


5 


7 


1 


Non?3. 




18 


5 


19 


6 




8 


6 


8 Id. 




20 


6 


21 


7 


13 


9 


c 


7 Id. 




22 


7 


2 King 1 


8 


2 


10 


<Z 


6 Id. 




2 King 2 


8 


3 


9 




11 


e 


5 Id. 




4 


9 


5 


10 


10 


12 


f 


4 Id. 




6 


10 


7 


11 




13 


g 


3 Id. 




8 


11 


9 


12 


18 


14 


A 


Pr. Id. 




10 


12] 11 


13 


7 


15 


5 


Idus. 




12 


13 13 


14 




U 


c 


17 Kl. Junii. 




14 


14 15 


15 


15 


17 


a 


18 Kl. 




16 


15 


17 


16 


4 


IS 


e 


15 Kl. 




18 


16 


19 


1 Cor. 1 




19 


f 


14 Kl. 


Dunstan, Archb. of Cant. 


20 


17 


21 


2 


12 


•20 


<3 


13 Kl. 




22 


18 


23 


3 


121 


A 


12 Kl. 




24 


19 


25 


4 


23 


b 


11 Kl. 




Ezra 1 


20 Ezra 3 


5 


9 23 


c 


10 Kl. 




4 


21 5 


6 




24 


d 


9K1. 




6 


22 7 


7 


17 


25 


e 


8K1. 




9 


23lNeh. 1 


8 


6 


23 


f 


7K1. 


August, first Archb. of Cant. 


Neh. 2 


24J 4 


9 




27 


9 


6K1. 


Yen. Bede, Presbyter. 


5 


25j 6 


10 


14 


28 


A 


5K1. 




8 


26 1 9 


11 


3 


29 


b 


4K1. 


Charles ii., Nat. & Ret. 


10 


27 13 


12 




30 


c 


3K1. 




Esther 1 


28 Esther 2 


13 


11 


31 


a 


Pr. Kl. 




3 


Mark 1 4 


14 



JUNE. 



97 



i) z & a I en D a r. 



JUNE HATH XXX DAY S 
THE MOON HATH XXIX. 



m 
O 


3 

I 


i 

w 


the mo. 
ling to 
Roman 
.itation. 


FESTIVALS AND OTHER 


MORNING 

^rajirr. 


EVENING 

^rarirr. 


— 




c 


o o a 


HOLY DATS. 








r^ 






1 


O 


$? 


1 






1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


O 


a 


R 


P 














l 


e 


Kalend. 


Nicomede, Rom. Pr. & M. 


Esther 5 


Mark 2 


Esther 6 


1 Cor.15 


19 


2 


/ 


4 No. 




7 


3 


8 


16 


8 


3 


£7 


3 No. 




9 


4 


Job 1 


2 Cor. 1 


16 


4 


.4 


Pr. No. 




Job 2 


5 


3 


2 


5 


5 


6 


Nonae. 


Boniface, B. of Mentz & M. 


4 


6 


5 


3 




6 


c 


8 Id. 




6 


7 


7 


. 4 


13 


7 


d 


7 Id. 




8 


8 


9 


5 


2 


8 


e 


6 Id. 




10 


9 


11 


6 




9 


/ 


5 Id. 




12 


10 


13 


7 


10 


10 
11 


g 

A 


4 Id. 
3 Id. 


S, Barnabas, Apost. &. M. 


14 


11 


15 


8 


18 


12 


b 


Pr. Id. 




16 


12 


17,18 


9 


7 


13 


c 


!dus. 




19 


13 


20 


10 




14 


d 


18 EX Julif . 




21 


14 


22 


11 


15 


15 


* 


17 Kl. 




23 


15 


24,25 


12 


4 


1G 


f 


16 Kl. 




26,27 


16 


28 


13 




IT 


9 


15 Kl. 


S. Alban, Martyr. 


29 


Luke 1 


30 


Galat. 1 


12 


18 


A 


14 Kl. 




31 


2 


32 


2 


1 


19 


6 


13 Kl. 


[West-Sax. 


33 


3 


34 


3 




20 


c 


12 Kl. 


Transl. of Edward, K. of the 


35 


4 


36 


4 


9 


21 


d 


11 KL 




37 


5 


38 


5 




22 


e 


10 Kl. 




39 


6 


40 


6 


17 


23 


f 


9KL 


Fast. 


41 


7 


42 


Ephes.l 


6 


24 





8 EL 


Nativity of S. John, Baptist. 












25 


A 


7K1. 




Prov. 1 


8 


Prov. 2 


2 


14 


26 


b 


6 El. 




3 


9 


4 


3 


3 


27 


c 


5K1. 




5 


10 


6 


4 




23 


d 


4K1. 


Fast. 


7 


11 


8 


5 


11 


29 


e 


3K1. 


S. Peter, Apostle &. Martyr. 












30 


f 


Pr. Kl. 




9 


12 


10 


6 



98 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 



Cie feaun&ar 



JULY HATH XXXI DAYS. 
THE MOON HATH XXX. 



1 


o 


o 


ays of the mo. 
according to 
the Roman 
computation. 


FESTIVALS AND OTHER 


MORNING 

laager. 


EVENI NG 

Ipragcr. 


g 

2 

O 


o 

>> 

c3 


o 


HOLT DATS. 






1 Lesson, 


2 Lesson. 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 





P 
1 


ft 


ft 












19 


9 


Kalend, 




Prov. 11 


Luke 13 


Prov. 12 


Philip. 1 


8 


2 


A 


6 No. 


Visitat. of the Bl. V. Mary. 


13 


14 


14 







3 


b 


5 No. 




15 


15 


16 


3 


16 


4 


c 


4 No. 


Trans, of S. Martin, B. & C. 


17 


16 


18 


4 


5 


5 


d 


3 No. 




19 


17 


20 


Colos. 1 




6 


e 


Pr. No. 




21 


18 


22 


2 


13 


7 


f 


Nonae. 




23 


19 


24 


3 


2 


8 


9 


8 Id. 




25 


20 


26 


4 




9 


A 


7 Id. 




27 


21 


28 


1 Thes.l 


10 


10 


b 


6 Id. 




29 


22 


31 


2 




11 


c 


5 Id. 




Eccl. 1 


23 


Eccl. 2 


3 


18 


12 


d 


4 Id. 




3 24 


4 


4 


7 


13 




3 Id. 




5 John 1 


6 


5 




14 


f 


Pr. Id. 




7 


2 


8 


2 Thes.l 


15 


15 


g 


Idus : 


Swithun, B. Winch., Transl. 


9 


3 


10 


2 


4 


16 


A 


17 Kl. Aug. 




11 


4 


12 


3 




17 


b 


16 Kl. 




Jerem.l 


5 


Jerem.2 


ITim. 1 


12 


18 


c 


15 Kl. 




3 


6 


4 


2,3 


1 


19 


d 


14 Kl. 




5 


7 


6 


4 




20 


• 


13 Kl. 


Margaret, V. & M., Antioch. 


7 


8 


8 


5 


9 


21 


/ 


12 Kl. 


S. Mary Magdalen. 


9 


9 


10 


6 




22 





11 Kl. 




11 


10 


12 


2Tim.l 


17 


23 


A 


10 KL 




13 


11 


14 


2 


6 


24 


b 


9K1. 


Fast. 


15 


12 


16 


3 




25 


c 


8K1. 


S. James, Apostle &. Martyr. 




13 




4 


13 


26c? 


7K1. 


S- Anne, Mother to the Bl. 


17 


14 


18 


Titus 1 


3 


27 e 


6KL 


[Vir. Mary. 


19 


15 


20 


2,3 




28|/ 


5K1. 




21 


16 


22 


Philem. 


11 


29|<7 


4K1. 




23 


17 


24 


Heh. 1 




30 \A 


3K1. 




25 


18 


26 


2 


19 


31 6 


Pr. Kl. 




27 


19 


28 


3 



AUGUST. 



99 



CN & a i eno at. 



AUGUST HATH XXXI DAYS 
THE MOON HATH XXX. 



o 


a 

o 

£ 




the mo. 
ling to 
Roman 
itation. 


FESTIVALS AND OTHER 


MORNING 

IPrager. 


EVENING 

Iprager. 




c 

>> 

P 

1 


c 
to 

ft 

B 
c 


o o a 

m o a> O 

ft 


HOLT DAYS. 






o 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


8 


Kalend. 


Lammas day. 


Jer. 29 


John 20 


Jer. 30 


Hehr. 4 


16 


2 


* 


4 No. 




31 


21 


32 


5 


5 


3 


e 


3 No. 




33 


Acts 1 


34 


6 




4 


/ 


Pr. No. 




35 


2 


£6 


7 


13 


5 


g 


Nonas, 




37 


3 


38 


8 


2 


6 


* 


8 Id. 


Transfigur. of our Lord. 


39 


4 


40 


9 




7 


» 


7 Id. 


Name of Jesus. 


41 


5 


42 


10 


10 


8 


c 


6 Id. 




43 


6 


44 


11 




9 


* 


5 Id. 




45,46 


7 


47 


12 


18 


10 




4 Id. 




48 


8 


49 


13 


7 


11 


/ 


3 Id. 




50 


9 


51 James 1 




12 


<7 


Pr. Id. 




52 


10 


Lam. 1 


2 


15 


13 


1 


Idus 




Lam. 2 


11 


3 


3 


4 


14 


6 


19 Kl. Sept. 




4 


12 


5 


4 




15 


c 


18 Kl. 




Ezek. 2 


13 


Ezek. 3 


5 


12 


16 


* 


17 Kl. 




6 


14 


7 


IPet. 1 


1 


17 


e 


16 Kl. 




13 


15 


14 


2 




18 


/ 


15 Kl. 




18 


16 


33 


3 


9 


19 


9 


14 Kl. 




34 


17 


Dan. 1 


4 




20 


A 


13 Kl. 




Dan. 2 


18 


3 


5 


17 


21 


b 


12 Kl. 




4 


19 


5 


2 Pet. 1 


6 


22 


« 


11 Kl. 




6 


20 


7 


2 




23 


ri 


10 Kl. 


Fast. 


8 


21 


9 


3 


14 


24 


6 


9 EL 


S. Bartholomew, Ap. & M. 




22 




1 John 1 


3 


25 


/ 


8K1. 




10 


23 


11 


2 




26 





7K1. 




12 


24 


Hosea 1 


8 


11 


27 


4 


6K1. 




Hos.2, 3 


25 


4 


4 




28 


6 


5K1. 


S. August, B. of Hippo. C. D. 


5,6 


26 


7j 5 


19 


29 


c 


4 EL 


Beheading of S. John Bapt. 


8 


27 


9 2,3Joh. 


8 


30* 


3 EL 




10 


28 


11 Jude. 




H* 


Pr. Kl. 

: 




12 


Matth.l 


13,Rom. 1 



100 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



C&e KalenDar, 



SEPTEMBER HATH XXX DAYS, 
THE MOON HATH XXIX. 



CD 

o 


■d 

"3 

o 

■a 

o 

DO 

C3 


i 

o 


ays of the mo. 
according to 
the Roman 
computation. 


FESTIVALS AND OTHEB 
HOLY DATS. 


MORNING 

Eraser. 


EVENING 

^ragcr. 


o 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


O 


3 
1 


P 


P 












16 


/ 


Kalend. 


Giles, Abbot & Confess. 


Hos. 14 


Matth. 2 


Joel 1 


Rom. 2 


5 


2 


9- 


4 No. 




Joel 2 


3 


3 


3 




3 


.1 


3 No. 




Amos 1 


4 


Amos 2 


4 


13 


4 


b 


Pi\ No. 




3 


5 


4 


5 


2 


5 


c 


Nonae. 




5 


6 


6 


6 




6 


d 


8 Id. 




7 


7 


8 


7 


10 


7 


e 


7 Id. 


Enurchus, Bish. of Orleans. 


9 


8 


Obad. 


8 




8 


f 


6 Id. 


Nativity of the B. V. Mary. 


Jonah 1 


9 


Jon. 2, 3 


9 


18 


9 


9 


5 Id. 




4 


10 


Mich. 1 


10 


7 


10 


A 


4 Id. 




Mich. 2 


11 


3 


11 




11 


b 


3 Id. 




4 


12 


5 


12 


15 


12 


e 


Pr. Id. 




6 


13 


7 


13 


4 


13 


d 


Idus. 




Nah. 1 


14 


Nah. 2 


14 




14 


e 


18 Kl. Oct. 




3 


15 


Hab. 1 


15 


12 


15 


f 


17 Kl. 




Hab. 2 


16 


3 


16 


1 


16 


9 


16 Kl. 




Zeph. 1 


17 


Zeph. 2 


1 Cor. l 




17 


A 


15 Kl. 


Lambert, Bish. and Mart. 


3 


18 


Hagg. 1 


2 


9 


18 


b 


14 Kl. 




Hagg. 2 


19 


Zech. 1 


3 




19 


c 


13 Kl. 




Zee. 2, 3 


20 


4,5 


4 


17 


20 


a 


12 Kl. 


Fast. 


6 


21 


7 


5 


6 


21 


e 


11 KL 


S. Matthew, Ap., Evan, k M. 




22 




6 




22 


f 


10 Kl. 




8 


23 


9 


7 


14 


23 


9 


9K1. 




10 


24 


11 


8 


3 


24 


A 


8K1. 




12 


25 


13 


9 




25 


b 


7K1. 


[& Mart. 


14 


26 


Mai. 1 


10 


11 


26 


c 


6K1. 


S. Cyprian, Archb. of Carth. 


Mai. 2 


27 


3 


11 


19 


27 


d 


5K1. 




4 


28 


Tob. 1 


12 




28 


e 


4KX 




Tobit 2 


Mark 1 


3 


13 


8 


29 


f 


3H. 


S. Michael, and all Angels. 




2 




14 




30 


g 


Pr. Kl. 


S, Jerom, Pr. Conf. & Doct. 


4 


3 


6 


15 



OCTOBER. 



101 



f) e l&aienoar 



OCTOBER HATH XXXI DAYS 
THE MOON HATH XXX. 



O 
5 


c o 

s £ 


i- 1.1 
i|ai 


FESTIVALS AND OTHER 


MORNING 

prater. 


EVENING 



1 


'— "•— 


*~ S a, 

■ - -- - 


HOLT DATS. 




r 


c 




i Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


-2_ 


p 

1 


P 
A 


p 












11 


Kalend. 


Remigius, Bish. of Rhemes. 


Tobit 7 


Mark 4 


Tobit 8 


1 Cor.16 


5 


2 


* 


6 No. 




9 


5 


10 


2 Cor. 1 


13 


3 


c 


5 No. 




11 


6 


12 


2 


2 


•i 


a 


4 No. 




13 


7 


14 


3 




5 


e 


3 No. 




Judith 1 


8 


Judith 2 


4 


10 


6 


f 


Pr. No. 


Faith, Virgin and Martyr. 


3 


9 


4 


5 




7 


g 


Nona, 




5 


10 


6 


6 


18 


8 


A 


8 Id. 




7 


11 


8 


7 


7 


9 


b 


7 Id. 


S. Denys, Areop. B. & M. 


9 


12 


10 


8 




10 


c 


6 Id. 




11 


13 


12 


9 


15 


11 


* 


5 Id. 




13 


14 


14 


10 


4 


12 


e 


4 Id. 




15 


15 


16 


11 




13 


f 


3 Id. 


Trans, of K. Edward, Conf. 


Wisd. 1 


16 


Wisd. 2 


12 


12 


14 


9 


Pr. Id. 




3 


L.lto39 


4 


13 


1 


15 


A 


Idus. 




5 


1,39 


6 


Galat. 1 




16 


b 


17K1. Nov. 




7 


2 


8 


2 


3 


17 


c 


16 Kl. 


Etheldred, Virg. 


9 


3 


10 


3 




18 


a 


15 KL 


S. Luke, Evangelist, 




4 




4 


17 


19 


e 


14 Kl. 




11 


5 


12 


5 


a 


•20 


f 


13 Kl. 




13 


6 


14 


6 




21 


9 


12 Kl. 




15 


7 


16 


Ephes.l 


14 


22 


A 


11 KL 




17 


8 


18 


2 


3 


23 


b 


10 Kl. 




19 


9 


Ecclus.l 


3 




24 


c 


9KL 




Ecclus.2 


10 


3 


4 


11 


25 


a 


8KL 


Crispin, Mart. 


4 


11 


5 


5 




2o 


e 


7K1. 




6 


12 


7 


6 


19 


27 


f 


6KL 


Fast 


8 


13 


9 


Phil. 1 


8 


38 





BKL 


S. Simon & S. Jude, A. & M, 




14 




2 




29 




4K1. 




10 


15 


11 


3 


16 


30 


" 


3KL 




12 


16 


13 


4 


5 


31 


c 


Pr. Kl. 

1 


Fast. 


14 


17 


15'CoL 1 



102 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



€f)e fcaiennar 



NOVEMBER HATH XXX DAYS. 
THE MOON HATH XXIX. 





5 



I 




the mo. 
ling to 
Roman 
itation. 


FESTIVALS AND OTHER 


MORNING 
Eraser. 


EVENING 

Imager. 


g 

o 

O 


"5 

1 
A 

1 


3 

R 

s 

5 




osaoS 

>>2~ 9, 

ft 


HOLT DATS. 








1 Lesson, 


2 Lesson. 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 




Kalend, 


All Saints day, 










13 


2 


e 


4 No. 




Ecclu.16 


Luke 18 Ecclu.17 Colos. 2 


2 


3 


/ 


3Xo. 




18 


19 


19 


3 




4 





Pr. No. 




20 


20 


21 


4 


10 


5 

6 


6 


Nonae. 
8 Id. 


Papists' Conspiracy. 
Leonard, Confessor. 


22 
24 


21 
22 


23 
(a) 25 


1 Thes.l 
2 


18 


7 


c 


7 Id. 




27 


23 


28 


3 


7 


8 


d 


6 Id. 




29 


24 


(6)30 


4 




9 


g 


5 Id. 




31 


John 1 


32 


5 


15 


10 





4 Id. 




33 


2 


34 


2 Thes.l 


4 


11 


3 Id. 


S. Martin, Bish. and Confess. 


35 


3 


36 


2 




12 


J 


Pr. Id. 




37 


4 


38 


3 


12 


13 


b 


Idus ; 


Britius, Bishop. 


39 


5 


40 


ITim. 1 


1 


14 


c 


18 Kl. Dec. 




41 


6 


42 


2, 3 




15 


cl 


17 Kl. 


Machutus, Bishop. 


43 


7 


44 


4 


9 


16 


e 


16 Kl. 




45 


8 


(c)46 


5 




17 


f 


15 Kl. 


Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln. 


47 


9 


48 


6 


17 


18 


9 


14 Kl. 




49 


10 


50 


2 Tim. 1 


6 


19 


-*- 


13 Kl. 




51 


11 


Baruc. 1 


2 




20 


b 


12 Kl. 


Edmund, King and Martyr. 


Baruc. 2 


12 


3 


3 


14 


21 


c 


11 Kl. 




4 


13 


5 


4 


3 


22 


a 


10 Kl 


Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr. 


6 


14 


H.ofSu. 


Titus 1 




23 


e 


9K1. 


S. Clement L, B. of R. & M. -j 


Bell and 
the Dr. 


f 15 


Isaiah 1 


2,3 


11 


24 


f 


8KL 




Isaiah 2 


16 


3 


Philem. 


19 


25 


g 


7K1. 


Catherine, Virgin and Mart. 


4 


17 


5 


Heh. 1 




20 


A 


6KL 




6 


18 


7 


2 


8 


27 


b 


5 EL 




8 


19 


9 


3 




28 


c 


4K1. 




10 


20 


11 


4 


16 


29 


a 


3KL 


Fast. 


12 


21 


13 


5 


5 


SO 


e 


Pr. Kl. 


S. Andrew, Apostle & Mart, 




Acts 1 




C 









Note, that (a) Ecclus. 25 is to be read only to verse 13, and (6) Ecclus. 30 only to verse 
13, and (c) Ecclus. 46 only to verse 20. 



DECEMBER, 



103 



C&c Ealentiar 



DECEMBER HATH XXXI DAYS. 



THE MOON HATH XXX. 



1 


- 
c 

5 


o 


the mo. 
ling to 
Roman 
itation. 


FESTIVAIiS AND OTHER 


MORNING 

|Bragrr. 


E VE N 1 NG 

^ragcr. 


g 


^ 


c 

* 


«« i- a. 


HOLY DATS. 










X 


o o a 

w % ° S 












"o 


§> 


£ 






\ lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


1 Lesson. 


2 Lesson. 


O 


- 


1 


P 














1 


f 


Kalend. 




Isai. 14 


Acts 2 


Isai. 15 


Hebr. 7 


13 


2 


g 


4 No. 




16 


3 


17 


8 


2 


3 


A 


3 No. 




18 


4 


19 


9 


10 


4 


b 


Pr. No. 




20,21 


5 


22 


10 




5 


c 


Nona. 




23 


6 


24 


11 


18 


6 


a 


8 Id. 


Nicolas, B. of Myra in Lycia. 


25 


7 to v.30 


26 


12 


7 


7 


* 


7 Id. 




27 


7,30 


28 


13 




8 


f 


6 Id. 


Concept of the B. Y. Mary. 


29 


8 


30 


James 1 


15 


9 


9 


5 Id. 




31 


9 


32 


2 


4 


10 


A 


4 Id. 




33 


10 


34 


3 




11 


b 


3 Id. 




35 


11 


£6 


4 


12 


12 


c 


Pr. Id. 




37 


12 


38 


5 


1 


13 


d 


Idus 


Lucy, Virgin and Martyr. 


39 


13 


40 


IPet. 1 




14 


e 


19 Kl. Jan. 




41 


14 


42 


2 


9 


15 


f 


18 KL 




43 


15 


44 


3 




16 


9 


17 Kl. 


O Sapientia. 


45 


16 


46 


4 


17 


17 


A 


16 Kl. 




47 


17 


48 5 


6 


IS 


b 


15 Kl. 




49 


18 


50 2 Pet. 1 




19 


c 


14 Kl. 




51 


19 


52 


2 


14 


20 


a 


13 Kl. 


Fast. 


53 


20 


54 


. 3 


3 


21 


e 


12 Kl. 


S. Thomas, Apostle & Mart. 




21 




Uohnl 




22 


f 


11 Kl. 




55 


22 


56 


2 


11 


23 


9 


10 Kl. 




57 


23 


58 


3 




24 


A 


9K1. 


Fast. 


59 


24 


60 


4 


19 

8 


25 
26 
27 


d 


8K1. 
7K1. 
6K1. 


Christmas day. 

S. Stephen, the first Martyr. 

S. John, Apostle & Evang. 










16 


28 


e 


5KL 


Innocents' day. 




25 




5 


5 


29 


f 


4K1. 




61 


26 


62 2 Joh 




30 





3KL 




63 


27 


64 


3 John. 


13 


31 


A 

1 


Pr. Kl. 


Silvester, Bishop of Rome. 


65 


28 


66 


Jude. 



104 



THE CHURCH CALJJVDAB. 



TO FIND EASTER FOREVER 



Goldei Nos. 


A. 


B. 


C. 


D. 


E. 


F. 


G. 


I 


April 9 


10 


11 


12 


6 


j" 8 


ir 


Mar. 26 


27 


28 


29 


SO 


31 April 1 


m 


April 16 


17 


18 


1 


20 


14 15 

1 


IV 


April 9 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 






v 


Mar. 26 


27 


28 


29 


23 


24 


25 


VI 


April 16 


17 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


VII 


April 2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


Mar. 31 


April 1 


vni 


April 23 


24 


25 


19 


20 


21 


22 


IX 


April 9 


10 


n 


12 


13 


14 


8 






x 


April 2 


3 


Mar. 28 


29 


30 


31 


April 1 




XI 


April 16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


22 






xn 


April 9 


19 


11 


5 


6 


7 


8 


xin 


Mar. 26 


27 


28 


29 


30 


31 


25 


XIV 


April 16 


17 


18 


19 


13 


14 


15 


XV 


April 2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 






XVI 


Mar. 26 


27 


28 


22 


23 


24 


25 


XVII 


April 16 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


xvin 


April 2 


3 


4 


5 


Mar. 30 


31 


April 1 


YJX 


April 23 


24 


18 


19 


20 


21 


22 



When ye have found the Sunday Letter in the uppermost line, guide your eye 
downward from the same till ye come right over against the Prime, and there is 
shewed both what month and what day of the month Easter falleth that year. But 
note that the name of the month is set at the left hand, or else just with the figures, 
and followeth not, as in other tables, by descent, but collateral. 



CHAPTER X. 

The two defects of the Old Style — Its defects no new discovery — Pre- 
liminary steps towards a reformation — Effected under Pope Gregory 
the Thirteenth — The reform not accepted in Great Britain — Conse- 
quent inconveniences of the Clergy — Captiousness of the Puritans. 

THE Victorian Period,* or the Paschal Cycle, as it is 
commonly termed, was received, as we have seen, 
with great applause ; and it seemed at that time as if the 
Church were to have no further trouble in the designation 
of Easter. The Metonic Cycle, reduced to more accurate 
dimensions by the Alexandrian Bishops, had triumphed, 
after a struggle of two hundred years, over all its competi- 
tors ; and its ingenious combination with the Solar Cycle 
brought the Calendar of the Church, as was then thought, 
to a state of perfection, and secured its universal adoption. 

But notwithstanding the laudable and persistent inge- 
nuity with which it had been elaborated, the Calendar had 
two fundamental defects, which, though seemingly incon- 
siderable, were destined in the lapse of ages to work confu- 
sion, and to render its reformation imperatively necessary. 

In the first place, the authors of the Calendar assumed 
that the year consisted of three hundred and sixty-five and 
a quarter days, and thus made the Calendar year longer 
than the true solar year. At the time of the Council of 
Nice, A. D. 325, the vernal equinox occurred on the 21st of 

* In the language of chronology, a period consists of two or more 
cycles ; thus the Julian Period is the continued product of the Cycles of 
the Sun, the Moon, and the Indiction (28 x 19 x 15 = 7980). But the dis- 
tinction is not always observed, and the designation of the product of the 
Lunar and Solar Cycles as the Paschal Cycle is supported by usage. 



106 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

March, and it was then supposed that it would continue 
ever afterwards to occur on the day set down in the Calen- 
dar as March 21st. The supposition would have been 
correct if the year had consisted, as the Calendar assumed, 
of exactly three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours ; 
but as the true year was about eleven minutes shorter than 
the Calendar year, it is evident that the vernal equinox 
would in this proportion anticipate the day assigned to it 
in the Calendar. Now if we would know for our own satis- 
faction how long a time would elapse before eleven minutes 
a year would amount to a day, we may form an arithmetical 
series of which the first term is eleven, the common differ- 
ence is eleven, and the last term is one day of twenty-four 
hours. Eeducing the last term to minutes, the series 

stands thus : 11, 22, 33, 1440 ; and dividing the 

difference of the extremes by the common difference, and 

K 1440— 11 \ -i 
Ti ~ ^/ + * 

one hundred and thirty to be the sum of the series. Hence, 
as the Calendar gained on the sun at the rate of eleven 
minutes a year, it is evident that in one hundred and thirty 
years after the time of the Council of Nice, that is to say 
A. D. 455, the Calendar would have gained a day upon the 
sun, and consequently that the true day of the vernal 
equinox would be A. D. 455, the 20th of March, and not 
the 21st of March ; that in the year 585, the equinox would 
be the 19th of March, and in 715 the 18th of March, 
and so on, instead of the 21st. It is true that the reform- 
ers make the advance of the Calendar to be at the rate 
of one day in 133 years ; but this, as we shall see, is 
only one among several instances in which they wisely 
sacrificed mathematical precision, when it could be safely 
done, to the attainment of more important ends. Again : 



SO LAB AND LUNAR TIME. 



107 



The reform took effect A. D. 1582, and if we would satisfy 
ourselves as to the number of days the sun had then receded 
since A. D. 325, we may ; on the same principle as before, 
divide the difference between 1582 and 325 by 130 and add 
one to the quotient ; which will show that the Calendar 
had then advanced on the sun about ten days. These 
rough figures, which are used illustratively and not argu- 
mentatively, may help some readers to realize the fact that 
the Church three hundred years ago was led by the Calen- 
dar to celebrate her Easter ten days later than the time 
intended by the authors of the Calendar. 

The other defect of the Calendar lay in assuming the 
correctness of the Lunar Cycle ; that is to say, in assuming 
that once in every nineteen years there is an exact agree- 
ment of the solar and the lunar time. 

This supposed agreement is exhibited in the following 
schedule : 



SOLAK TIME. 



Nineteen solar years, 
each 365 d. 6 h 



Total solar time in 19 
solar years 



Days. hrs. 
6939 18 



6939 18 



LUKAE TIME. 



Nineteen lunar years 
of 354 days each ; or, 
which is the same 
thing, 228 moons of 
29^ d. each 



In the space of 19 years 
were seven interca- 
lated moons, six of 
30 d. and one of 
29 d 



Some cycles would have 
five leap years and 
others only four, mak- 
ing an average of 4f 
days to be added to 
the lunar time 



Total lunar time iu. 19 
solar years 



Days. hrs. 



6726 00 



209 00 



4 18 



6939 18 



The hypothesis is not only specious, but is a remarkable 
approximation to the truth. If it had been precisely ac- 



10S THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

curate, the prime or golden number, set opposite to the day 
of the month, as it used to be in the old calendar, would 
have continued to indicate the day of the new moon with 
sufficient correctness. In fact it was only after long expe- 
rience of its benefits that men began to suspect its error. 
It was then discovered that " Although," to use the words 
of Mr. Wheatly, " at the end of every nineteen years the 
" moon changes on the very same day of the solar months 
" on which it changed nineteen years before ; yet the 
" change happens about an hour and a half sooner every 
" nineteen years than in the former." It is certain, indeed, 
that in the course of nineteen solar years there are two 
hundred and thirty-five moons ; but assuming the length 
of the moon to be, as the modern computists make it, 
29 d. 12 h. 44' 3" 11'", or 29.53058 days, the account would 
stand as follows : 



Nineteen solar years of 365 days 6 h. each 

Two hundred and thirty-five moons, each 29 d. 12 h. 
44' 3" 11"' ". 

Excess of solar time over the lunar in 19 years 



Days. hrs. min. 
=6939 18 

=6939 16 31.2 



1 28.8 



Now, assuming this to be the excess of the solar time 
over the lunar in one cycle of nineteen years, it is evident 
that at the end of every succeeding nineteen years the new 
moon would fall 1 hour and 28.8 minutes sooner than the 
time assigned to it by the Calendar, and if we would ascer- 
tain how many years would elapse before this difference 
would amount to a day, we have but to form a series, as 
before, of which the first term and the common difference 
is 1 hour 28.8 minutes, and the last term is a day of 24 
hours, thus : 1.48, 2.96, 24 ; the sum of which 

r/?l_r ^§ = 15.2) -f 1 == 16.2] shows that the difference 



DEFECT OF THE LUNAR CYCLE. 109 

amounts to a day in about sixteen lunar cycles ; that is to 
say (16.2 x 19 = 307.8) in about three hundred and eight 
years. The Gregorian reformers, however, with good reason, 
as we shall see on a future page, assumed the anticipation 
of the moon on the Calendar time to be equal to one day in 
three hundred and twelve and a half years. In 1582, when 
the Calendar was reformed, the difference amounted to 
about four days. 

These defects at the time the Calendar was reformed 
were no new discovery. So early as the eighth century the 
venerable Bede had called attention to the deviation of 
Easter from the vernal equinox, or the time prescribed for 
its observance by the Council of Nice. In the thirteenth 
century the famous Koger Bacon not only proved the exist- 
ence of the defects, but is also said to have pointed out 
with exactness the proper method of correcting them. The 
project of reform is also said to have been entertained by 
Sixtus the Fourth in the fifteenth century, and agitated at 
the Council of Constance. In July, 1510, as Sir Harris 
Nicolas informs us, on the authority of Bymer's Foedera, 
Pope Leo the Tenth wrote to Henry the Eighth that the 
necessity of correcting the Calendar had been noticed in 
the Council of Lateran ; and requesting him to obtain the 
opinions of the most eminent professors of astrology and 
theology in his dominions on the subject, and to transmit 
them to Borne. In the latter part, however, of the six- 
teenth century, under the pontificate of Gregory the Thir- 
teenth, the reformation was undertaken in earnest and 
prosecuted with that caution and foresight which, in mat- 
ters of this sort, are characteristic of the Boman See. The 
subject was submitted to a body of astronomers and mathe- 
maticians, the most eminent of their age, which had been 
convoked at Borne for the purpose of considering it. Ten 



110 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

years were devoted to its discussion and to the examination 
of the rival plans of reform which had been submitted to 
the assembly. The result was a preference for the plan of 
Aloisius and Antoninus Lilius, two brothers of Yerona. 
The plan thus preferred was sent by the Pontiff to all the 
states and learned institutions of Catholic Europe, and 
having received the seal of their approval, was formally 
promulgated at Rome in March, 1582, and appointed to 
take effect in October of the same year ; at which time con- 
sequently the Old Style of the Calendar, as it soon came to 
be called, was formally abrogated, and the New Style was 
substituted in its place. 

The men to whom the emendation of the Calendar was 
entrusted were not visionaries ; they took for their guide 
the certain experience of the past without becoming entetes 
with the dreams of the future ; they sought to reform and 
not to innovate. We may be sure that changes, even need- 
less changes, were proposed, which mere science would not 
resist. It was proposed, for example, to keep the equinox, 
as it then was, to the 11th of March. But what church- 
man is not grateful to the Catholic reformers who resisted 
so rude an attempt to disturb the old Paschal terms, etc., 
and adhered to March 21st, in literal compliance with the 
Nicene prescription ? The Church Calendar, the growth 
of centuries, the reformers religiously retained ; not eschew- 
ing even the name of Julian, which a preposterous accident 
had fastened upon it ; and aiming merely to remedy the 
few defects which time had revealed, they transmitted the 
same Church Calendar to the generations that succeeded 
them, with no other changes than such as were the result 
of a wise, temperate, and effectual reformation. si sic 
omnia ! 

It is to the honour of the Church of Rome that while 



REFORM OF THE CALENDAR. HI 

the storms of religious controversy were raging around her, 
she undertook and carried to perfection a reform that de- 
manded for its successful achievement the highest attain- 
ments of science and learning. Although the measure was 
an advance in civilization, a contribution of the discoveries 
of science to the wants of mankind, yet they who took the 
name and delighted in the distinction of the Reformed 
accepted the boon slowly and grudgingly, and chiefly as it 
was forced upon them by the exigencies of life. At least, 
as a general rule, the New Style was adopted by countries 
of the Roman obedience and rejected by the Protestants. 
Great Britain at first indeed gave promise of rising above 
the prejudices of religion. So early as March 16th, 1584-5, 
and 27th of Elizabeth, a bill was introduced into the House 
of Lords, entitled " An Act giving her Majesty authority 
" to alter and new make a Calendar according to the Cal- 
" endar used in other countries." But if the blossom was 
early the fruit was late ; the bill was read a second time in 
the House of Lords, and was heard of no more ; nor was it 
until 1752 that Great Britain, after all the nations but one 
that have accepted the reformation had preceded her, 
adopted the Gregorian Calendar ; and its adoption was 
finally brought about, not by the Bishops and Clergy, who 
were content, for some unexplained reason, to trudge on by 
the help of temporary makeshifts (enjoying, perhaps, the 
shouts of the people, " Give us back our eleven days" *), 

* In 1752 it had become necessary to cancel eleven days in the Calendar. 
The allusion in the text is to Hogarth's picture of the Election Dinner, 
where the satirist reveals the popular feelings of the day by inserting a 
scroll with the above words in the mouth of one of the crowd. Sir Harris 
Xicolas, having mentioned the above circumstance, adds : " The feelings 
" of the English populace closely resembled those of the Chinese on a 
" similar occasion. The person employed to construct the Imperial 
" Almanack proved so ignorant of his business, that he inserted an inter- 
" calary month in the current lunar year, when it should have consisted 



112 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

but by the courtly Lord Chesterfield, iu concert with the 
Earl of Macclesfield, Dr. Bradley, and other men eminent 
for science. 

The praise which is cheerfully accorded to the Roman 
See for its reformation in one point, ought not, in fairness, 
to be understood as palliating its neglect of reformation in 
other points. The same Gregory who reformed the Calen- 
dar, renewed the bull of Pius V excommunicating Elizabeth 
and absolving her subjects from allegiance to their Queen, 
and deprived James the First, in such wise as Papal au- 
thority could deprive, of the kingdoms of England and 
Ireland.* One may commend the reformation of the Cal- 
endar, without being quite prepared to acknowledge the 
unlimited subordination of the temporal to the spiritual 
authority, or to regard one's country as a fief or appanage 
of the Eoman See. 

It would be interesting to trace the progress of the refor- 
mation of Gregory from its commencement to its conclu- 
sion ; to note the principles which were laid down for its 
guidance, as well as the first steps and subsequent stages 
of its history ; the names of the learned who were chiefly 
concerned in it ; the rival schemes that were proposed dur- 
ing the ten years in which the subject was under considera- 
tion, and the different judgments that were passed on the 
work after its completion by the states and academies to 
which it was submitted. But the historians whose oppor- 
tunities of inquiry would have enabled them to throw light 
on these topics, give us no information. Du Pin, a theolo- 
gian who devotes a folio to the ecclesiastical history of the 
sixteenth century, speaking of Gregory the Thirteenth, 

" of only twelve lunations. At the suggestion of a missionary the Cal- 
" endar was altered, ' but with some difficulty, the Chinese being sorely 
" ' puzzled to know why they should be deprived of a whole month ! ' ,; 
* See Life of Dean Comber, p. 155. 



ADHERENCE TO THE OLD PATHS. 113 

merely says : " We owe to him the reformation of the Cal- 
" endar." Rycaut, a civilian who had contributed a volume 
(in continuation of Platina) to the Lives of the Popes, and 
who had given a fair share of space to the Life of Gregory 
the Thirteenth, dispatches the reformation of the Calendar 
in four lines. And the inscription engraven by the people 
of Borne on the monument of brass which Gregory, during 
his lifetime, had caused to be erected to his memory in the 
Capitol, records with pious gratitude his adornment of the 
city with magnificent temples and statues, and his zeal for 
the propagation of the Gospel to Heathen nations, but 
makes no allusion to the work which has gained for his 
name its distinctive honour. 

An adherence to the " Old Paths," though a plain duty, 
imposed by divine precept in matters of revealed religion, 
is productive neither of safety nor comfort in matters which 
are dependent on the discoveries of science. It is easy to 
understand and even to sympathize with the views of ortho- 
dox divines who have almost until our own times deplored the 
banishment of Sternhold and Hopkins from our churches. 
But it is not easy to comprehend the grounds on which an 
intelligent body of clergy could oppose the introduction of 
the Gregorian reformation into the Church of England. 
Did they distrust the authorities to whom the work was 
confided, and fear lest the reform of the Calendar would be 
made a pretext for some radical change in its structure ? 
I know too little of the history of the times to hazard an 
opinion. Of one thing, however, we may be sure — viz., 
that the backwardness of the clergy to accept the reform 
was disinterested ; since without it they were hampered 
with difficulties to which we have already alluded, and two 
of which a sympathy with our fathers in their lighter as 
well as their graver trials moves us to describe. 
8 



114 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

First take the case of the primes or golden numbers. 
These, in the old Calendar, were set opposite to the days 
of the month which were respectively the days of the new 
moon. For several hundred years this method proved to 
be sufficiently accurate. But in the first part of the eigh- 
teenth century the moon had lost five days on the Calen- 
dar. Hence, in some editions of the Prayer Book, we find 
the editors supplementing the Calendar with a column 
intended to save as many as consulted it the trouble and 
possible errour of counting five days backward for them- 
selves. Take, for instance, a leaf from the Prayer Book of 
Dr. Nicholls, A. D. 1712. (See page 115.) 

The Prayer Book begins with the second column and 
contains the golden numbers arranged as described in the 
last chapter. The first column belongs not to the Prayer 
Book but to the editor, and contains the same golden num- 
bers set five days back. In the second column, for exam- 
ple, 19 is set opposite to 25, which is the day of the new 
moon according to the Calendar ; but in the first column it 
stands opposite to the 20th, which is the correct day as 
given by the editor. 

The other matter respected the observance of Easter. 
To give an example : In 1709 the Paschal full moon fell, 
according to the Calendar, on April 17th, which on that 
year was Sunday, and was accordingly kept as Palm Sun- 
day, while the Sunday following, April 24th, was held to 
be Easter. In that year, however, the astronomical full 
moon fell on Thursday, April 13th, which would make the 
following Sunday, April 17th, to be Easter. On such occa- 
sions, and even in the anticipation of them, the Puritans, 
whom God seems to have created to try the patience of 
His saints, were seized with inward spasms. Their con- 
science was then keenly alive to the duty of commemorating 



SPECIMEN OF CORRECTED CALENDAR, 0. S. 115 



NOVEMBER HATH XXX DAYS. 
THE MOON HATH XXIX DAYS. 







1 


a 


Kalends, 


All Saints, day. 


18 


13 


2 


e 


4 No. 




7 


2 


3 
4 


f 

g 


3 No. 






Pr. No. 




15 


10 


5 


A 


Nons. 


Papists, Conspiracy. 


4 




6 


b 


8 Wub. 


Leonard, Confessor. 




18 


7 


c 


7 Id. 




12 


7 


8 
9 


d 
e 


6 Id. 




1 


5 Id. 






15 


10 


f 


4 Id. 




9 


4 


11 


Q 


3 Id. 


S. Martin, B. and Confessor. 








12 | A 


Pr. Idus. 




17 


12 


13 


b 


Idus. 


Britins, Bishop. 


6 


1 


14 


c 


18 Kal. Dec. 








15 


d 


17 Kal. 


Machutus, Bishop. 


14 


9 


16 


e 


16 Kal. 




3 




17 


f 


15 Kal. 


Hugh, B. of Lincoln. 




17 


18 


g 


14 Kal. 




11 


6 


19 


A 


13 Kal. 




19 




20 


b 


12 Kal. 


Edmund, King and Martyr. 




14 


21 


c 


11 Kal. 




8 


3 


22 


d 


10 Kal. 


Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr. 






23 


e 


9 Kal. 


S. Clement, I. B. of R. and M. 




16 


11 


24 / 


8 Kal. 




5 


19 


25 


g 


7 Kal. 


Catherine, Virgin and Martyr. 


13 




26 


A 


6 Kal. 




2 


8 


27 


b 


5 Kal. 








28 


c 


4 Kal. 




10 


16 


29 


d 


3 Kal. 


Past 




5 


30 


e 


Pr.Kal. 


S. Andrew, Apostle and Martyr. 



116 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

our Lord's Eesurrection at Easter, and they became pro- 
portionally tenacious of their right and privilege to observe 
the day according to the rule of the Nicene Council and 
the practice (the Gregorian Calendar had at this time been 
generally adopted on the Continent) of all Christian 
Churches. How could they then in conscience subscribe 
their consent to the Prayer Book, which asserted what was 
false in fact, involved them in dissent from all Christian 
Churches, and might peradventure compel them (the year 
then began on March 25th) to observe two Easters in one 
year. The objection of the Puritans was a good reason 
why the Church should adopt the reformed Calendar, and 
had they urged it for this purpose, they would have de- 
served to be commended ; but when they used it as a lever 
to subvert the authority of the Church, and to estrange her 
members from the peaceful and harmonious observance of 
her festivals, they acted in the mere and wanton spirit of 
faction. It is not my design to review the controversy 
which was then waged with a class of men who stood more 
in need, as South somewhere says, of Luke the physician 
than of Luke the evangelist, and whose conscience was apt 
to overflow with grief in proportion to their redundancy of 
bile. Whoever is curious to see the arguments in extenso 
may consult the elaborate note of Dr. Nicolls on the word 
Calendar in his Introduction to the Prayer Book, or the 
Preface of Dean Prideaux to the second part of his 
" Connections." The latter good-humouredly remarks in 
the outset : " It is a very odd thing that this sort of people 
" who are against keeping any Easter at all, should raise 
" any quarrel about the time of its observance. But since 
" they are pleased to do so, I will here endeavour to give 
" them full satisfaction." 

But it is time we had returned from this digression to 
the main design of our work. 



CHAPTER XL 

The New Style of the Calendar — The principle underlying the reform, 
not that of demonstrative science, but of traditionary experience — 
Remedy for the first error of the Old Style — Method adopted to pre- 
vent the recurrence of the error— Practical perfection of the New 
Style. 

THE object of the Church Calendar, both under the 
Old and the New Style, is twofold : 1. To exhibit a 
permanent and faithful delineation of solar time for the 
future ; such, for example, as shall designate the days on 
which the equinoxes shall forever hereafter occur ; and 2. 
To exhibit the agreement between the solar and the lunar 
time ; so as to keep the Paschal full moon (the first Sun- 
day after which is Easter day) in its normal relation for- 
ever with the vernal equinox. The method of obtaining 
these results is not scientific, in the modern and restrained 
sense of the word. That is to say, it does not proceed upon 
demonstration from first 'principles; science, in this sense 
of the word, being very imperfectly known to the ancients, 
and being, moreover, even in its present state of perfection, 
too dim of vision — be it said under favour of the philoso- 
phers — to lay bare the secrets of the distant future as the 
Church has spread them before us in her Calendar. To 
attain this end, to foretell, for example, the day on which 
the Paschal moon, or any other moon, shall be full five 
thousand or ten thousand years hence, Science must come 
down from her throne, and condescend to accept the cycles 
which the custodians of the Church have treasured up in 
her traditionary lore, and verified by a long tract — long in 
the account of the world, though but a day in the corporate 



US THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

life of the Church — of observation and experience. Long 
experience, indeed, was necessary to discover the defects of 
the Old Style ; but the discovery did not lead the Church 
to abandon her system of chronology or surrender it to the 
direction of the age ; on the contrary, she quietly applied 
herself to remove the defects of her system by the same 
patient learning and fertile ingenuity with which she had 
presided at its birth and watched over its growth ; and 
thus her Calendar was kept, as, in order to insure its in- 
tegrity, it necessarily must be kept, wholly out of the proud 
domain of demonstrative science. The truth of this remark 
will appear when we shall have described, as we are now 
about to do, the means which were taken to remedy the two 
defects of the Old Style of the Calendar. 

In A. D. 325 the sun crossed the line on the day which 
was marked in the Calendar as March the 21st. In A. D. 
1582 the sun crossed the line on the day which was marked 
in the Calendar as March the 11th, showing that in the 
intervening one thousand two hundred and fifty-seven 
years the Calendar time had gained ten days on the solar 
time. To correct this error, and at the same time to retain, 
agreeably to ecclesiastical usage, the 21st of March as the 
day of the vernal equinox, it was only necessary to strike 
the ten nominal days out of the Calendar ; and accordingly 
it was decreed that the 5th day of October, when the New 
Style was to take effect, should be held and taken to be the 
15th day of October. By this simple contrivance, backed 
by an authority competent to secure for it general accept- 
ance, the Calendar, as far as this error was concerned, was 
at once restored to its original agreement with astronomical 
truth ; for as in 325, so also in 1583, the vernal equinox 
really fell on March the 21st, the day assigned to it by the 
Calendar. 



,t 



THE CENTURIAL YEARS. 119 

The next step was to guard against a recurrence of the 
same error ; that is to say, to prevent the Calendar time 
from gaining on the solar time in the future, as it had 
gained in the past at the rate of one day in one hundred 
and thirty years. This end was effected by bringing the 
centurial years under the same law with other years ; that 
is to say, by retaining every fourth centurial year as a bis- 
sextile with two letters, and making the three centurial 
years next before it to be common years with only one letter 
apiece. Under the Old Style, every centurial year was 
accounted a leap-year of three hundred and sixty-six days, 
and had two letters assigned to it ; but under the New 
Style, every centurial year, the centuries of which cannot 
be divided by four without a remainder, is accounted a 
common year of three hundred and sixty-five days, and has 
but one letter assigned to it. 

Here it is to be noted that as the Old Style assigned two 
letters to every leap-year of three hundred and sixty-six 
days, in order to bring it within the Calendar year of three 
hundred and sixty-five days, so the suppression of a letter 
in any leap-year of the Old Style is equivalent to the sup- 
pression of a day in the Calendar time. 

It should be noted also that as 4 and all the multiples 
of 4, as 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, etc., can be exactly measured by 
4, so the numbers which come, in arithmetical order, be- 
tween any two of these consecutive multiples, as 5, 6, 7 ; 
9, 10, 11 ; 17, 18, 19, etc., cannot be so measured, but, 
when divided by 4, leave a remainder. This fact, doubt- 
less, suggested to the reformers their rule for the suppres- 
sion of the centurial letters. For assuming as a convenient 
approximation to the truth, that, in order to the correction 
of the Calendar, one day was to be withdrawn from the 
Old Style in every one hundred and thirty-three years, or, 



120 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

what is the same thing, three days in every three hundred 
and ninety-nine years, it is evident that the correction 
could be best made by suffering those centurial years, the 
centuries of which can be measured by 4, to have two let- 
ters under the New Style as they had under the Old, and 
by suppressing a letter in those centurial years, the centu- 
ries of which cannot be measured by 4. Hence it is that 
while the Calendar under both Styles makes the years 1600 
and 2000 to be each a leap-year with two letters and three 
hundred and sixty-six natural days, it makes the years 
1700, 1800, and 1900 (which were leap-years under the Old 
Style) to be common years under the New Style, each with 
only one letter and three hundred and sixty-five days. 

But will not the Calendar now fall behind the sun ? 
The danger of its doing so is a theme of speculation for 
mathematicians and astronomers, but is too distant and 
inconsiderable to be of any practical account. If it be 
true, as high authorities affirm, that the deduction should 
be one day in one hundred and thirty years instead of one 
day in one hundred and thirty-three years, the excess even 
then will not amount to a day before the year 5200, when 
it will be only necessary, by an exception to the Gregorian 
rule, to take the year 5200 for a common year instead of a 
leap-year to make our accounts as even as they were before. 
For the true measure of the solar year, according to 
Lalande, is 365 d. 5 h. 40' 48", which shows the excess of 
the Julian over the tropical year to be equal to 11' 12", or 
11| minutes. Consequently, in the lapse of four hundred 
years, the Calendar time gains on the Solar time 3 d. 2 h. 
40', which is two hours and forty minutes more than the 
three days cancelled in the Gregorian Calendar in four 
hundred years. Now, two hours and forty minutes is to a 
day of twenty-four hours as four hundred years is to three 



PERFECTION OF THE NEW STYLE. 121 

thousand six hundred years, which shows that the deduction 
of three days in four hundred years from the Julian Calen- 
dar will keep the Calendar even with the sun for three 
thousand six hundred years. Now the first centurial year 
after the Gregorian reform went into operation was the 
year 1600 ; to which, if you add 3600, you have the year 
5200 of the Christian era as the first year in which the 
excess of the true solar year will amount to a day. Others, 
building on more approved data, make the excess to be one 
day in three thousand eight hundred and sixty-six years ; 
and as this differs but little from four thousand years, they 
propose to modify the Gregorian rule by making the year 
4000, and its multiples 8000, 12000, 16000, etc., to be 
common years. In this way they calculate that the com- 
mencement of the year would not vary more than a day 
from its present place in a thousand centuries.* 

Of course, as the Calendar is founded on a cycle, and as 
there is no cycle the assumed phenomena of which are in 
exact accordance with the celestial phenomena, and as, 
moreover, the best astronomers are not precisely agreed in 
the measurement of the solar year, it is in vain to expect 
that there should be such an adjustment of the Calendar 
to the heavenly bodies as is absolutely perfect. But an 
adjustment like this of the Gregorian Calendar which varies 
only one day in three thousand six hundred years, and 
which, by a slight modification, might be made to vary 
only one clay in a thousand centuries, is such an approxi- 
mation to absolute perfection as practically leaves nothing 
to be desired. With our present information, it seems im- 
possible that a better adjustment should be made, or that 
the venerable structure bequeathed to us by the Church 
should not continue to be used as long as time shall last. 

* See Ency. Brit , art. Calendar. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Remedy for the second defect of the Old Style — Substitution of the 
Epacts for the Golden Numbers — The Reformed Lunar Calendar — 
Explanation of its structure. 

HAVING- described the method adopted by the re- 
formers to adjust the New Style of the Calendar to 
the true solar time, we are next to describe the method 
whereby, in order to remedy the second defect of the Old 
Style, they contrived to make the Calendar exhibit with 
sufficient accuracy the days of the solar year on which the 
changes of the moon would hereafter occur. 

We have seen that under the Old Style the changes of 
the moon fell behind the time assigned to them in the Cal- 
endar at the rate of one day in three hundred years ; an 
error which, at the time of the reformation, had amounted 
to four days. But the reformers themselves had created 
another difficulty ; for the withdrawal of a day from the 
solar time in a centurial year would make the Calendar 
exhibit the changes of the moon in that century one day 
later than the truth required. Here, then, were two sources 
of error to be guarded against of a directly opposite kind ; 
the one demanding the addition of a day to the Calendar 
once in three hundred years, the other the deduction of a 
day in every centurial year which was not a bissextile. 
The correction of both these errors was essentially necessary 
in order to keep the lunar time of the Calendar in accord- 
ance with the solar time. The most obvious mode of cor- 



RULE FOR FINDING EASTER N. S 123 

rection was to set the Golden Numbers a day higher or a 
day lower in every century in which a change was necessary. 
But the reformers were laudably ambitious to bring their 
work so near to perfection that the Calendar, without the 
help of clerks and committees, or any sort of tampering, 
should proprio vigore proclaim with certainty and forever 
to all the members of the Church the days of her solemn 
feasts. To this end the use of the Golden Numbers for 
indicating the days of the New Moon was totally abolished, 
and the system of Epacts was substituted in their place. 

That the reader may understand this system, I shall 
now lay the reformed Calendar before him. Some remarks 
explanatory of its design and structure may fitly follow it. 
But to show at once its chief use, I would first ask the 
reader's attention to its method of finding Easter ; and if 
he will compare the method of the New Style with that 
which was followed under the Old, he will be the better 
prepared to appreciate the peculiarities of the Hanoverian 
method which has been fastened upon us in our English 
and American Prayer Books. 

To find Easter, then, for a given year, by the following 
Calendar, it is necessary to know the Epact for the year 
and the Sunday Letter for the year. Having found these, 
you enter the Calendar at the 8th day of March and glance 
your eye down the column of Epacts until you come to the 
Epact for the given year. The day of the month opposite 
to the Epact for the year is the day of the Paschal new 
moon, the fourteenth day from which (both inclusive) is 
the day of the Paschal full moon ; and the day following, 
which stands opposite to the Dominical Letter for the year, 
is Easter day. 

Kequired Easter day for 1871 ; the Epact for the year 
being ix, and the Dominical Letter A. 



124 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 



Enter the Calendar at the 8th of March, and move down 
the column of Epacts till you come to ix ; the day of the 
month opposite to ix is March 22d, the fourteenth day 
from which, both inclusive, is April the 4th ; then look 
down the column of the Dominical Letters till you find A ; 
and the day of the month opposite to A is April the 9th ; 
which is Easter day for 1871. 

In this way Easter day may be found for any year from 
its first institution to the end of time. 

N. B. — The Epact for the year may be found in the 
Table for " The Time of Two Cycles of the Moon," given 
in our American Prayer Book. 

THE REFORMED LUNAR CALENDAR 



JANUARY. 


FEBRUARY. 


MARCH. 


APRIL. 


D.M. 


LET 


EPACTS. 


D. M.jEET 


EPACTS. 


D.M. 


LET 


EPACTS. 


D.M. 


LET 


EPACTS. 


1 


A 


* 


1 


d 


xxix. 


1 


d 


* 


1 


g 


xxix. 


2 


b 


xxix. 


2 


e 


xxviii. 


2 


e 


xxix. 


2 


A 


xxviii. 


3 


c 


xxviii. 


3 


f 


xxvii. 


3 


f 


xxviii. 


3 


b 


xxvii. 
25, xxvi/ 


4 


d 


xxvii. 


4 


g 


25, xxvi. 


4 


g A 


xxvii. 


4 


c 


5 


e 


xxvi. 


5 


A 


xxv,xxiv. 


5 


A 


xxvi. 


5 


d 


xxv,xxiv. 


C 


f 


25, xxv. 


6 


b 


xxiii. 


6 


b 


xxv. 


6 


e 


xxiii. 


7 


g 


xxiv. 


7 


c 


xxii. 


7 


c 


xxiv. 


7 


f 


xxii. 


8 


A 


xxiii. 


8 


d 


xxi. 


8 


d 


xxiii. 


8 


g 


xxi. 


9 


b 


xxii. 


9 


e 


XX. 


9 


e 


xxii. 


i 9 


A 


XX. 


10 


c 


xxi. 


10 


f 


xix. 


10 


f 


xxi. 


1 10 


b 


xix. 


11 


d 


XX. 


11 


g 


xviii. 


11 


g 


XX. 


11 


c 


xviii. 


12 


e 


xix. 


12 


A 


xvii. 


12 


A 


xix. 


1 12 


d 


xvii. 


13 


f 


xviii. 


13 


b 


xvi. 


13 


b 


xviii. 


13 


e 


xvi. 


14 


g 


xvii. 


14 


c 


XV. 


14 


c 


xvii. 


14 


f 


XV. 


15 


A 


xvi. 


15 


d 


xiv. 


15 


d 


xvi. 


15 


g 


xiv. 


16 


b 


XV. 


16 


e 


xiii. 


16 


e 


XV. 


16 


A 


xiii. 


17 


c 


xiv. 


17 


f 


xii. 


17 


f 


xiv. 


17 


b 


xii. 


18 


d 


xiii. 


18 


g 


xi. 


18 


g 


xiii. 


18 


c 


xi. 


19 


e 


xii. 


19 


A 


X. 


19 


A 


xii. 


19 


d 


X. 


20 


f 


xi. 


20 


b 


ix. 


20 


b 


xi. 


20 


e 


ix. 


21 


g 


X. 


21 


c 


viii. 


21 


c 


X. 


21 


f 


viii. 


22 


A 


ix. 


22 


d 


vii. 


22 


d 


ix. / 


22 


g 


vii. 


23 


b 


viii. 


23 


e 


vi. 


23 


e 


viii. 


23 


A 


vi. 


24 


c 


vii. 


24 


f 


v. 


24 


f 


vii. 


24 


b 


v. 


25 


d 


vi 


25 


g 


iv. 


25 


g 


vi. 


25 


c 


iv. 


26 


e 


v. 


26 


A 


Iii. 


26 


A 


v. 


26 


d 


iii. 


27 


f 


iv. 


27 


b 


ii. 


27 


b 


iv. 


27 


e 


ii. 


28 


g 


iii. 


28 


c 


i. 


28 


c 


iii. 


28 


f 


i. 


29 


A 


ii. 








29 


d 


ii. 


29 


g 


* 


30 


b 


i. 








30 


e 


i. 


30 


A 


xxix. 


31 


c 


* 








31 


f 


* 









REFORMED LUNAR CALENDAR. 



12,3 



THE REFORMED LUNAR CALENDAR— Continued. 



MAY. 


JUNE. 


JULY. 


AUGUST. 


D.M. 


LET 

T 


EPACTS. 

xxviii. 


D.M. 
1 


LET 

e 


EPACTS. 

xxvii. 


D.M. 


LET 


EPACTS. 


D. M. 


LET 


EPACTS. 


1 


1 


q 


xxvi. 


1 


C 


xxv.xxiv. 


2 


c 


XXV11 


2 


f 


25, xxvi. 


2 


A 


25, xxv. 


2 


d 


xxm. 


3 


a 


XXVI. 


3 


q 


xxv,xxiv. 


3 


b 


XXIV. 


3 


e 


xxn. 


4 


e 


25, xxv. 


4 


A 


xxm. 


4 


c 


xxm. 


4 


f 


xxi. 


5 


f 


XXIV. 


5 


b 


xxn. 


5 


d 


xxn. 


5 


q 


XX. 


« 


q 


XX111. 


6 


c 


XXI. 


6 


e 


XXI. 


6 


A 


xix. 


7 


A 


XX11. 


7 


d 


XX. 


7 


f 


XX. 


7 


b 


xviii. 


H 


b 


XXI. 


8 


e 


xix. 


8 


q 


XIX. 


8 


c 


xvn. 


9 


c 


XX. 


9 


f 


xvm. 


9 


A 


xvm. 


9 


d 


XVI. 


10 


d 


xix. 


10 


q 


xvn. 


10 


b 


xvn. 


10 


e 


XV. 


11 


e 


XV11L 


11 


A 


XVI. 


11 


e 


XVI. 


11 


f 


xiv. 


12 


f 


xvii. 


12 


b 


XV. 


12 


d 


XV. 


12 


q 


Xlll. 


13 


q 


XVI. 


13 


c 


XIV. 


13 


e 


XIV. 


13 


A 


Xll. 


14 


A 


XV. 


14 


d 


Xlll. 


14 


f 


Xlll. 


14 


b 


XI. 


15 


b 


xiv. 


15 


e 


Xll. 


15 


q 


Xll. 


15 


c 


X. 


16 


c 


Xlll. 


16 


f 


XI. 


16 


A 


XI. 


16 


d 


IX. 


17 


d 


Xll. 


17 


q 


X. 


17 


b 


X. 


17 


p. 


vm. 


18 


g 


XI. 


18 


A 


IX. 


18 


c 


IX. 


18 


f 


vii. 


19 


f 


X. 


19 


b 


vm. 


19 


d 


vm. 


19 


q 


VI. 


20 


q 


IX. 


20 


c 


vii. 


20 


e 


Vll. 


20 


A 


V. 


21 


A 


vm. 


21 


d 


VI. 


21 


f 


VI. 


21 


b 


IV. 


22 


b 


Vll. 


22 


e 


V. 


22 


q 


V. 


22 


c 


111. 


23 


e 


VI. 


23 


f 


IV. 


?3 


A 


IV. 


23 


d 


11. 


24 


d 


v. 


24 


q 


111. 


24 


b 


iii. 


24 


e 


j. 


25 


e 


iv. 


25 


A 


11. 


25 


c 


n. 


25 


f 


* 


26 


f 


iii. 


26 


b 


1. 


26 


d 


l. 


26 


q 


XXIX. 


27 


q 


ii. 


27 


c 


* 


27 


e 


* 


27 


A 


xxvm. 


28 


A 


i. 


28 


d 


XXIX. 


28 


f 


XXIX. 


28 


b 


xxvn. 


29 


b 


* 


29 


e 


XXV111. 


29 


q 


xxvm. 


29 


c 


XXVI. 


30 


c 


XXIX. 


30 


f 


XXV11. 


30 


A 


xxvn. 


30 


d 


XXV. 


31 


d 


XXV111. 








31 


b 


25, xxvi. 


31 


e 


XXIV. 



SEPTEMBER. 


OCTOBER, 


NOVEMBER. 


DECEMBER. 


D.M. 


LET 


EPACTS. 


1 

D.M. 


LET 


EPACTS. 


D.M. 


LET 


EPACTS. 


D.M. 


LET 
f 


EPACTS. 


1 


f 


xxiii. 


1 


A 


xxii. 


1 


d 


xxi. 


1 


XX. 


2 


q 


xxn. 


2 


b 


XXI. 


2 


e 


XX. 


2 


q 


XIX. 


3 


A 


XXI. 


3 


c 


XX. 


3 


f 


XIX. 


3 


A 


xvm, 


4 


b 


XX. 


4 


d 


XIX. 


4 


q 


xvm. 


4 


b 


xvn. 


5 


c 


XIX. 


5 


e 


xviii. 


5 


A 


xvn. 


5 


c 


xvi. 


6 


d 


xvm. 


6 


f 


xvn. 


6 


b 


XVI. 


6 


d 


XV. 


7 


e 


xvn. 


7 


q 


XVI. 


7 


c 


XV. 


7 


e 


xiv. 


8 


f 


XVI. 


8 


A 


XV. 


8 


d 


XIV. 


8 


f 


xiii. 


9 


q 


XV. 


9 


b 


XIV. 


9 


e 


Xlll. 


9 


q 


xii. 


10 


A 


XIV. 


10 


c 


Xlll. 


10 


f 


Xll. 


10 


A 


xi. 


11 


b 


Xlll. 


11 


d 


xii. 


11 


q 


XI. 


11 


b 


X. 


12 


c 


Xll. 


12 


e 


XI. 


12 


A 


X. 


12 


c 


IX. 


13 


d 


xi. 


13 


f 


X. 


13 


b 


IX. 


13 


d 


vm. 


14 


e 


X. 


14 


q 


ix. 


14 


c 


viii. 


14 


e 


Vll. 


15 


f 


IX. 


15 


A 


vm. 


15 


d 


vii. 


15 


f 


VI. 


16 


q 


viii. 


16 


b 


Vll. 


16 


e 


VI. 


16 


q 


v. 


17 


A 


Vll. 


17 


c 


VI. 


17 


f 


V. 


17 


A 


iv. 


18 


b 


VI. 


18 


d 


v. 


18 


q 


IV. 


18 


b 


iii. 


19 


c 


v. 


19 


e 


IV. 


19 


A 


111. 


19 


c 


n. 


20 


d 


IV. 


20 


f 


iii. 


20 


b 


11. 


20 


d 


i. 


21 


e 


in. 


21 


q 


n. 


21 


c 


1. 


21 


e 


* 


22 


f 


ii. 


22 


A 


i. 


22 


d 


* 


22 


f 


XXIX. 


23 


q 


i. 


23 


b 


* 


23 


e 


XXIX. 


23 


q 


xxvm. 


24 


A 


* 


24 


c 


XXIX. 


24 


f 


xxvm. 


24 


A 


xxvn. 


25 


b 


XXIX. 


25 


d 


xxviii. 


25 


q 


xxvn. 


25 


b 


xxvi. 


26 


c 


xxviii. 


26 


e 


xxvn. 


26 


A 


25, xxvi. 


26 


c 


25, xxv. 


27 


d 


xxvn. 


27 


r 


xxvi. 


27 


b 


XXV. XXIV. 


27 


d 


XXIV. 


28 


e 


25, xxvi. 


28 


q 


25, xxv. 


28 


c 


xxm. 


28 


e 


xxm. 


29 


f 


XXV,XX1V. 


29 


A 


XXIV. 


29 


d 


xxn. 


29 


f 


xxn. 


30 


q 


xxm. 


30 


b 


xxm. 


30 


e 


XXL 


30 


q 


XXI. 








31 


c 


xxii. 








31 


A 


19, xx. 



126 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

EXPLANATORY REMARKS. 

In the first place, it may be well here to explain more 
particularly the word Epact, and to show the different 
shades of meaning in which it is used. 1. Epact, from a 
Greek word which means to add, denotes primarily the 
eleven days which are added to the lunar year to make the 
time equal to the solar year. In this sense the word is 
now seldom used. 2. When the moon is new, it is said to 
have no age ; on whatever day of one solar year the moon 
is new, its age on the same day of the next solar year is 
eleven days, and so always we may find the age of the 
moon on any day of one year by adding eleven to its age on 
the same day of the year preceding. Hence the word which 
in its primary sense denotes the excess of the solar year 
over the lunar year, passes by an easy transition to mean 
the age of the moon on any day of the solar year. In this 
sense we say that the reformed Calendar has at least one 
Epact (which may be any number from one to thirty, both 
inclusive) for every day of the solar year. 3. In the tech- 
nical and more common sense, the Epact of the year means 
the age of the moon on the first day of January. Thus, in 
both the Old and the New Style, we speak of the Epacts 
which correspond to the Golden Numbers ; meaning by 
Epact the age of the moon at the beginning of that year of 
the Cycle which the Golden Number represents. 

2. As the distinctive mark of the Old Style of the Cal- 
endar is that the Prime or Golden Number for the year is 
set opposite in every month to the day of the new moon in 
that month ; so the distinctive mark of the New Style of 
the Calendar is that the Epact for the year is always set, 
or rather naturally falls in every month opposite to the day 
of the New Moon. 



EXPLANATION OF THE LUNAR CALENDAR. 127 

3. As the lunar year, consisting of three hundred and 
fifty-four days, is divided into twelve moons, each moon 
contains nearly twenty-nine and a half days. For the sake 
of convenience, however, these moons are distributed in the 
Calendar into six of thirty days and six of twenty-nine 
days each. The French call the former " les lunes pleines," 
and the latter " les lunes caves ; " and following them we 
call the moon of thirty days a full moon, and that of 
twenty-nine days a cave moon. 

4. The symbol * which is placed in the Calendar oppo- 
site to January 1st, January 31st, March 1st, April 29th, 
and through the remainder of the Calendar opposite to 
some one day of each civil month, denotes that one moon is 
ended and that another is begun. As a moon is always 
more than twenty-nine days, and yet never fully amounts 
to thirty days, it is evident that the Epact of the day which 
ends one moon and begins another cannot be expressed by 
a whole number. For this reason, it is always indicated in 
the Calendar by *, a symbol which may be regarded as 
equivalent to thirty or nought. 

5. It will be observed that the E pacts proceed in a reverse 
order to that of the days of the month. Thus the Epact 
of January 1st is *, that of January 2d is xxix, that of Jan- 
uary 3d is xxviii, and so on to the 31st of January, when it 
again becomes thirty or nought. Next opposite to the 1st of 
February is xxix, and thence the E pacts proceed as before 
to the 1st of March, where the symbol * again occurs. In 
this way they are continued, inversely to the days of the 
month, from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, 
both inclusive ; so that every day of the solar year has at 
least one Epact. 

In counting the moon or the duration of a moon, we do 
not follow the order of the Epacts (for in certain months 



128 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

two Epacts are assigned to one day), but we follow the 
order of notation in the civil months ; and when we speak 
of the moon of a particular month, as, for example, the 
moon of January, the moon of February, etc., we mean the 
moon which ends in that month. Let us take the Calen- 
dar, for example, as adapted to the first year of a cycle, 
when the Golden Number is I and the Epact for the first 
day of January is *. The moon of January is that which 
ends on the 30th of January. From 1 to 30, both included, 
are thirty days, and the moon of January is a full moon. 
The moon of February is that which begins on the 31st of 
January and ends on the 28th of February ; and as from 
January 31st to February 28th, both included, are twenty- 
nine days, the moon of February is a cave moon. The 
moon of March is that which ends on the 30th of March, 
and is a full moon of thirty days. The moon of April is 
that which began on the 31st of March and ends on the 
28th of April, and is a cave moon of twenty-nine days. 
The moon of May is that which began on April 29th and 
ends on May 28th ; from April 29th to May 28th, both 
included, are thirty days, and the moon of May is a full 
moon. Proceeding in this way we find that the twelve 
moons throughout the first year of the Cycle have been 
alternately full and cave ; and the symbol * opposite to 
the 21st of December marks the beginning of the January 
moon for the second year of the Cycle. The Epact for the 
second year is 11, and in the Calendar w r e find the Epact 
11 opposite to the 20th of January ; from the 21st day of 
December to the 19th of January, both always included, 
are thirty days, and the moon wljich ends on the 19th of 
January in the second year of the Cycle is a full moon. 
Continuing the count throughout the second year, we shall 
find the same alternation of full and cave moons until the 



EXPLANATION OF THE DOUBLE E PACTS. 129 

9th of December, which ends that lunar year. The moon 
which begins on the 10th of December is the January moon 
for the third year of the Cycle (the Epact of which is 
22), which ends on the 8 th of January. Passing on to the 
eighteenth year of the Cycle (the Epact being xii), we shall 
find that a moon ends on December 13th. This is the De- 
cember moon for that year ; and the moon which begins on 
December 14th is the January moon for the nineteenth 
year of the Cycle. Continuing our count through this 
year (the Epact being xviii), we shall find that the twelfth 
moon ends on December 2d ; and that consequently the 
last year of the Cycle is closed on December 31st with a 
month of twenty-nine days ; which bring us round again 
to the first year of the Cycle, with * for the Epact. 

6. It deserves also to be noted that in six months of the 
year, viz., in February, April, June, August, September 
and November, two Epacts, both in Koman characters, are 
assigned to one day of each month. The reason of these 
double Epacts being six times repeated is twofold. The 
first is to keep the lunar year within its proper limits. For 
the lunar year extends from the 1st of January to the 20th 
of December, both inclusive, and contains only three hun- 
dred and fifty-four days. Now, if the three hundred and 
sixty Epacts were distributed through the twelve months 
so that each day had only one Epact, they would extend 
six days beyond the lunar year, and terminate on the 26th 
of December instead of the 20th of December. But by 
assigning two Epacts to one day of the month for six 
months of the year, the whole number of Epacts is brought 
within the limits of the lunar year, and thus the remaining 
eleven days of the solar year, viz., from the 21st of Decem- 
ber to the 31st, both inclusive, begin a new lunar year, and 
have the same Epacts as the first eleven days of the year 
9 



130 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

preceding, viz., from the 1st to the 11th of January, both 
inclusive. 

The other reason for doubling the Epacts on one day of 
every alternate month is to preserve the distinction between 
the full moons and the cave moons. For since there>are 
but thirty Epacts for each lunar month, and one of these 
is assigned to every day for six months of the year, the 
appropriation of the Epacts XXV and XXIV to the 5th 
of February, the 5th of April, the 3d of June, the 1st of 
August, the 29th of September, and the 27th of November, 
makes the number of lunar days in each of these months 
one less than in each of the other months. By this means 
the thirty Epacts, twelve times repeated, are, without 
abatement of their number or disturbance of their order, 
so disposed as to constitute for one half of the lunar year 
months of thirty days each, and months of only twenty- 
nine days each for the other half. 

The Epacts " 25. XXV," and " 25. XXVI," and " 19. 
XX," may be better understood after an inspection of the 
Table which opens the next chapter. The rule in using 
the Calendar is : If the Epact for the year is XXV 
(Koman) and the Golden Number is less than 12, take 
XXV ; but if the Golden number is more than 11, take 25 
(Arabic). The Epact 25 has not yet been used since the 
Calendar was reformed, and will not come in play until the 
next century, viz., in 1916, and every other year of the 
same century the Golden Number of which is 17. The 
rule for the Epacts 19. XX opposite to the thirty-first of 
December is to use XX, with one only exception which is 
mentioned in the next chapter. 






CHAPTER XIII. 

The Expanded Table of Epacts — Its design and construction — The Solar 
and the Lunar Equation— Further uses of the Table— Why the Lunar 
Equation is determined to some centuries rather than to others — Rules 
for making the Equations, when and how applied — Table for the 
Equation of the Epacts — The Perpetual Cycle of the Epacts. 

THE reformed Lunar Calendar presents us with certain 
important results, but throws no light on the process 
by which these results are obtained. We see from it, for 
example, that the Epact for the year now falls opposite to 
the Paschal New Moon for the same year, and consequently 
that the error of the Old Style, which made it fall four or 
five days behind its normal time, is corrected. But how is 
this result obtained ? Moreover, we are assured that the 
error will not again be repeated ; but that, whatever be the 
year in any future century, the Epact for the year will 
always fall opposite to the day of the Paschal new moon in 
that year. Evidently, then, there must be some means for 
correcting this error in future and keeping the Calendar 
true, which do not appear in the Calendar itself. What 
are these means ? The answer to these questions, which 
opens a new and interesting chapter in the history of the 
Calendar, will be found in the Table of Expanded Epacts, 
which calculates all possible Epacts, and adjusts them to 
the various Golden Numbers in every century in which 
they can possibly occur. 

That the reader may have the subject advantageously 
before him, I shall first insert the Table, and then follow it 
with remarks intended to explain its structure and design. 



132 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



CO 



o 




< 




CL 




LU 






in 


Ll 


K 


o 




LU 

_J 




en 




< 


£ 


H 


w 




Q 


Q 


O 


LU 





Q 




Z 


w 


< 


X 


r» 


H 



>< 

LU 
LU 

n: 



•b '► '? > 

X X X X 


> i5 is =: 

X X X X 


"x X 43 > 


^ > > 45 




■>■>>> 


> :s ._. 


* 
xxix 

xxviii 
xxvii 


> ► > 5 
x x x x 

X X X X 




xxvi 
25 

xxiv 
xxiii 


~x "x x a 

X X X X 


X X X X 


45 is :s — 
'x "K 'S "x 




> 15 IS si 

X X X X 


'x X 43 *£ 


V > > 45 


.w * 




> :S -£ 


* 
xxix 
xxviii 
xxvii 


■£ 45 3 


M M M 43 
M M M M 




'x 'x 'x X 

X X X X 


43 > : £ '? 

M M M M 


> 45 is :S 

X X X X 


M M 43 > 




"x "x X 43 


*> '£ *> > 


> S3 - 


* 

xxix 

xxviii 
xxvii 




43? 

* X X 

— XX 


xxvii 
xxvi 

XXV 

xxiv 


m 'm "m m 

M M M M 


m « : ^ t; 

M X X X 




XX 

xix 

xviii 

xvii 


V > 45 is 

M X X X 


M M M 43 


'p 'p 'p > 




m : £ •? •£ 


> 45 S ss 


43 £ 

* M M 

MM 


xxvii 
xxvi 

XXV 

xxiv 




xxviii 
xxvii 
xxvi 

XXV 


xxiv 
xxiii 
xxii 
xxi 


M 43 '£ T 
M M X X 


V > .Z is 

M M M M 




: >. '> > 45 

M M X X 


M M M M 


43 'f> '> 


>■ 45 is S3 




* > 45 is 


X 

* 'x 
S3 — m 


xxviii 
xxvii 
xxvi 

XXV 


£ is S3 ^ 
"m 'm 'm m 

M M M M 




XXV 

xxiv 
xxiii 
xxii 


M M 43 ► 
M M M M 


X X X X 


M M M M 




£5 : S -S 
M M M M 


M 43 V '> 


V > 45 is 


M 

* M 

S3 .-, M 




S3 ~* * 


xxix 
xxviii 
xxvii 
xxvi 


XXV 

xxiv 
xxiii 
xxii 


M M 43 "> 
X X X X 




m 'x x 43 

M M X X 


'> *£ '£ > 

X X X X 


£ : s -s : ~ a 
M M 'S"S 1 M 43 V > 




M M 43 > 


V '> > 45 


:S .^ * 


xxix 
xxviii 
xxvii 
xxvi 




* 
xxix 
xxviii 
xxvii 


xxvi 

XXV 

xxiv 
xxiii 


*M 'M M 43 
M M M M 


">! ">! "> > 
M M M M 




ft,fe;*jkl 


Sb fe, fc) £> 


^ fiq "^ 3 


*» «o S. «M 





EXPANDED TABLE OF EPACTS, 



133 






« 


a 1 5 -g 

X M X X 
X X X X 


► i: 3 a 

X X X X 
X X X X 


X M 

X X 


"S 'x X H 

X X X X 


> > > > 

X X X X 


'x X X X 


x * 


X .2 '> "> 


> > ± :S 


X 
* X 

:s .,- X 


X X 
X X 


XXIX 

xxviii 
xxvii 
xxvi 


25 

xxiv 
xxiii 
xxii 


xxi 

XX 

xix 
xviii 


X X 


X X X X 


x 'x x x 


x « I : P 


V > 


V '> > £ 


•p* * 


xxix 
xxviii 
xxvii 
xxvi 


> 
8*3 


XXVI 

25 

xxiv 

xxiii 


X X X .% 
X X X X 


X X X X 


t is 

X X 


> £ is :S 

X X X X 


X M JA > 


: £ £ £ 


ts — * 


& : s 3d H 


* 
xxix 
xxviii 
xxvii 


xxvi 

XXV 

xxiv 
xxiii 


X X 
X X 


xxm 
xxii 
xxi 

XX 


xix 

xviii 

xvii 

xvi 


X X X X 


X X 


X *X X .S 


"£ 'p > > 


£ 3 sd - 


X 


* X X 
XX 


xxvii 
xxvi 

XXV 

xxiv 


'x 'x 'x X 

X X X X 


X X 


XX 

xix 

xviii 
xvii 


X M X X 


x 'x x .S 


■p •£ 


X •£ •£ •£ 


> £ =3 3d 


* X X 


X X 
X X 


'? "> '> > 
X X X X 
X X X X 


xxiv 
xxiii 
xxii 
xxi 


XX 

xix 

xviii 
xvii 


X X 


X X X X . 


'x x °x X 


M '£ '£ '£ 


>■& 


> > £ is 


X 

* 'x 

3d .* x 


xxviii 
xxvii 
xxvi 

XXV 


11 


XXV 

xxiv 
xxiii 
xxii 


xxi 

XX 

xix 

xviii 


X X X X 


x 'x 


'X "x 'x'x \ M .£ > > 


> > .« Is 


3d. 


*« g- 


»4i ■* *J 5j> 


S^ <u ^5 « 


-a « 



/ 



134 THE CHURCH 'CALENDAR* 

The line at the top of the Table contains the Golden 
Numbers, representing the nineteen years of the Lunar 
Cycle. The lines below the Golden Numbers give the 
Epacts proper to each year of the Cycle in different centu- 
ries. As the moon can never be more than thirty days old ? 
these lines being thirty in number, are of course exhaustive 
and contain all the Epacts possible^ Different lines are 
intended for different centuries ; but as the same line is 
sometimes used in two or more centuries, they are found to 
make a complete revolution not once in three thousand, 
but once in eight thousand five hundred years. The letters 
in the left-hand column, P, N, M, etc. ; a, b, c, etc., are 
merely indices, contrived for the sake of easy reference to 
the different centuries for which the different lines of 
Epacts are intended. As the Eoman characters have been 
preferred to the Arabic in the structure of the Table, some 
capital letters are purposely avoided as indices, in conse- 
quence of their resemblance to certain Koman numerals, 
and the small letters are used instead of them. 

In order to understand the design of the Table, let us 
carefully reconsider the defects of the Calendar which the 
reformers undertook to remedy. The Calendar itself, 
though founded upon a Cycle, and therefore not to be 
relied on for absolute precision, had yet been found, after 
a trial of more than one thousand two hundred years, suffi- 
ciently accurate for ecclesiastical purposes, with two excep- 
tions. The first was that the moon fell behind the sun one 
day in three hundred years ; to remedy which defect it 
became necessary to add one day in three hundred years to 
the lunar time in order to adjust it to the solar time of the 
Calendar. The second defect was that the Calendar ad- 
vanced on the equinoxes at the rate of one day in one 
hundred and thirty-three years. To obviate this defect in 






STRUCTURE OF THE EXPANDED TABLE. 135 

future, the reformers made three out of every four centurial 
years, which had been leap-years in the Old Style of the 
Calendar, or years consisting of three hundred and sixty- 
six days, to be common years in the New Style, or years 
consisting of three hundred and sixty-five days ; and in 
thus deducting three clays in every four hundred years from 
the solar reckoning, they were compelled at the same time 
to deduct three days in every four hundred years from the 
lunar reckoning, in order that the motions of the two lumi- 
naries might be evenly adjusted in the Calendar. 

This then was the problem, viz., to provide for adding 
one day in every three hundred years and deducting three 
days in every four hundred years, in order to adapt the 
Calendar to ecclesiastical use. Or rather we should say 
(for the same provision might have been made in different 
ways) that the problem was to make the Calendar forever 
adapt itself to these changes without the necessity of any 
extraneous intervention or arbitrary alteration. Difficult as 
the problem was, a slight examination of the structure of 
the Table of Expanded Epacts will convince us that it was 
solved completely, and with marvellous simplicity and beauty. 

The Council of Nice, from which the Church Calendar 
may be said to take its date, was held A. D. 325, in the 
third year of a Lunar Cycle, when the Epact for the year, 
or the age of the moon on the 1st of January, was * ; i. e., 
either 30 or 0. We set the Golden Numbers, or the years 
of the Lunar Cycle (with some one of which the current 
year of the Christian era always coincides), in a row at the 
head of the Table ; beginning with III, out of traditional 
respect for the venerable Council, continuing the Numbers 
to XIX, and completing the Cycle with the Numbers I 
and II. We then start from III, and under it set down * 
as the Epact for that year. We then find the Epacts 



136 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

for the ensuing years by adding 11 to that of each preced- 
ing year and rejecting 30 ; with this only exception, that 
for XIX, the last year of the Cycle, we add 11 and reject 
29, or, what is the same thing, add 12 and reject 30 ; the 
reason being that the intercalated month of the last year 
of the Cycle contains only twenty-nine days, while the 
others contain each thirty clays. We set the Epacts thus 
formed in the same line with the first Epact *, and under 
the years to which they respectively belong, and designate 
the line as P. We then proceed to form another line. We 
begin, as before, under III, and make the Epact for that 
year 29, or one less than 30, and set it under 30 or its 
symbol •. We then form the Epact for the fourth year of 
the Cycle, which, adding 11 to 29 and rejecting 30, we find 
to be 10 ; and so we proceed with the other years of the 
Cycle, except the XlXth, when we add 12 and reject 30. 
We have thus formed a second line of Epacts, every one of 
which is one less than the corresponding Epact in the line 
P ; and this second line we designate as N. In like man- 
ner, starting from III, we form a third line M, making the 
first Epact in the line M to be 28, or one less than the 
Epact above it in the line N, and then form as before the 
other Epacts for the remaining years. And so we continue 
to form the other lines H, Gr, F, etc., making the first 
Epact in each line, and consequently every other Epact in 
the same line, one less than the corresponding Epact in the 
line above, until we come to the lowest line, or that which 
has a for its index. When we have formed the line a, we 
have exhausted all the Epacts possible for the nineteen 
years ; for the Epact of a under the Golden Number III 
is 1, and if we lessen it by unity, we are brought back to 
the line P, whence we set out. The result is that we have 
thirty different lines of Epacts, or all that possibly can be, 



DESIGN OF THE EXPANDED TABLE. 137 

provided for use in different centuries ; and we see at once 
that in order to correct the Calendar, and prevent any dis- 
agreement of the lunar and solar time, we have only to pass 
from one line of Epacts to the line next below or next 
above. Suppose, for example, that after using the line P 
for a century, we had occasion to deduct one day from the 
lunar reckoning in order to compensate for the day lost in 
the solar reckoning by turning a leap-year of three hundred 
and sixty-six days into a common year of three hundred 
and sixty-five days ; in this case we descend from the line 
P to the line N, in which the Epact or age of the moon in 
every year of the Cycle is one less than in the line P. Or 
suppose we had occasion to add a day to the lunar time to 
compensate for its loss of one day in three hundred years ; 
in this case we ascend from the line P to the line a, the 
Epacts of which are severally one more than the Epacts in 
the line P. 

We remarked that these corrections are not made by 
any exterior agency, or by a computist entrusted with the 
work of alteration, but that the Calendar is so contrived as 
to adjust itself to every correction necessary to be made. 
To show this, let us take the year 1871, which synchron- 
izes with the tenth year of the Lunar Cycle. Referring to 
the Expanded Table of Epacts, we find, under the Golden 
Number X in the line C, that nine is the Epact for the 
year ; and on turning to the Calendar we find the Epact 
ix opposite to the 22d of January, the 20th of February, 
the 22d of March, the 20th of April, the 20th of May, the 
18th of June, the 18th of July, the 16th of August, the 
15th of September, the 14th of October, the 13th of No- 
vember, and the 12th of December ; which shows that these 
were the days of the months on which one moon was ended 
and another began. Now let us take a year in the next cen- 



138 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

tury, say 1909, which also synchronizes with the tenth year 
of the Cycle. In the next century we descend one line in 
the Expanded Table, and under the Golden Number X 
in the line B we find viii, which is the Epact for 1909. 
Keferring to the Calendar, we find the Epact viii set 
opposite to the 23d of January, the 21st of February, the 
23d of March, the 21st of April, the 21st of May, the 19th 
of June, the 19th of July, the 17th of August, the 16th of 
September, the 15th of October, the 14th of November, and 
the 13th of December ; which are the days of the Ecclesias- 
tical new moons in the year 1909. Thus, to find the eccle- 
siastical new moon and the feasts depending on it, we have 
never occasion to "change the place of the G-olden Num- 
" bers," to set them a day lower in one century and a day 
higher in another, or to tamper with the Calendar in any 
way whatever. The reformers have done the whole work 
to our hands, and with the Expanded Table of Epacts and 
the Perpetual Lunar Calendar, we may dispense with all 
other machinery. The reformed Calendar alone, with the 
Epacts adjusted forever to the Golden Numbers by the 
Expanded Table, is adapted to every century and regulates 
itself for all time. 

What lines are proper to different centuries, and how we 
were brought to the line which we are now using, are 
points which we shall presently explain. All that we here 
aim to show is that the reformers have made an effectual 
provision for keeping the lunar time of the Calendar forever 
adjusted to the solar time. For to this end all that is 
necessary is in different centuries to use different lines of 
Epacts in order to determine the Epact for the year ; to 
descend a line in those centuries in which a day is to be 
deducted from the age of the moon, and to ascend a line in 



THE SOLAR AND LUNAR EQUATIONS. 139 

those centuries in which a day is to be added to the age of 
the moon. 

These two corrections of the Calendar (which are always 
made ; if made at all, at the beginning of a century) are 
called the solar and lunar equations ; the one consists in 
the deduction of a day from the age of the moon three 
times in four hundred years ; and this is called the solar 
equation, as being designed to adjust the lunar time of 
the Calendar to that of the sun ; the other consists in the 
addition of a day to the age of the moon once in three 
hundred years ; and this is called the lunar equation, as 
being designed to guard against the fault of the lunar cycle 
and adjust the Calendar to the motion of the moon. To 
effect the former change we descend a line and so diminish 
the Epacts by unity ; and to effect the latter change we 
ascend a line and so augment the Epacts by unity. Now, 
whatever be the Epact for the year when either of these 
equations is required, it can never be less than one or more 
than thirty ; and as the Table contains thirty lines of 
Epacts, or all which can possibly be, it evidently provides 
for making the necessary equations for any number of cen- 
turies ; in fact as long as the sun and moon shall endure. 

It is not to be inferred from what has been said that a 
change in the line of Epacts is made in every century. 
Provision is made for such change if it be necessary. But 
it is not always necessary ; for two and even three centuries 
may elapse without any change being required. How this 
comes to pass will be explained in a future paragraph ; at 
present, suffice it to say that from A. D. 1582 to A. D. 
2200, being a period of more than six hundred years, there 
will have been in all but two changes in the lines of the 
Epacts. 



140 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

Hence it will be seen that the change of the Epacts, 
which, if made, is made (as above remarked) in the begin- 
ning of a century, is governed by the three following rules : 

1. In a centurial year in which the bissextile day is 
omitted, if the lunar equation is not to be made, the 
Epacts descend and are diminished by unity. 

2. In a centurial year in which the bissextile day is not 
omitted, and in which the lunar equation is to be made, 
the Epacts ascend and are increased by unity. 

3. In a centurial year in which the bissextile day is omit- 
ted and the lunar equation has become due ; or in which 
the bissextile is not omitted and the lunar equation is not 
required, no change is to be made, but the Epacts are to 
remain the same as they were in the century next pre- 
ceding. 

A few remarks will naturally follow in reference to the 
use of the Table, and to some peculiarities which belong 
to it : 

1. One use of the Expanded Table of Epacts is to show 
the Epact for the year ; and when this is known, a refer- 
ence to the Lunar Calendar will show the days of the new 
moon in that year. 

1. The Epact for the year is found under the Golden 
Number for the year in the line of Epacts proper to the 
century. Thus the Golden Number for 1869 is VIII ; and 
under VIII, in the line C (which is the line of Epacts in use 
from 1700 to 1899 inclusive), is xvii. The Epact, therefore, 
for 1869 is xvii ; and opposite to xvii in the Lunar Calen- 
dar you find the days of the ecclesiastical new moon for the 
said year 1869. 

2. In the Old Style of the Calendar, the first Epact, or 
that which answered to the first year of the Lunar Cycle, 
was always xi, and consequently the correspondence be- 



THE NEW ORDER OF EPACTS. 141 

tween the Epacts and the Golden Numbers was invariably 
the same. In the New Style of the Calendar, however, this 
uniformity connot be preserved ; and the reason is, that 
every change in the line of Epacts begets a change in the 
correspondence between the Epacts and the Golden Num- 
bers. The first line of Epacts which was used after the 
Calendar was reformed was D ; and if we examine the 
Expanded Table, we shall see that the Epact which cor- 
responds to the first year of the Cycle is one, and that con- 
sequently the correspondence stood as follows : 

G.N I, II, III, IV, V, VI, etc. 

Epacts 1, 12, 23, 4, 15, 26, etc. 

In the year 1700 there was a descent to the line C, which 
is still in use ; and it is according to this line that the 
correspondence in Wheatly and other books is given as 
follows : 

G.N I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, 

Epacts....*, 11, 22, 3, 14, 25, 6, 17, 28, 9, 20, 1, 

G.N XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX. 

Epacts.... 12, 23, 4, 15, 26, 7, 18. 

We have been so long accustomed to this arrangement 
that we are apt to regard it as permanent ; but in the year 
1900 we shall descend to the line B, when the Epact for 
the first year will be 29 and the correspondence will stand 
as follows : 

G. N.....I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, 

Epacts... .29, 10, 21, 2, 13, 24, 5, 16, 27, 8, 19, * 

G.N XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX. 

Epacts.... 11, 22, 3, 14, 25, 6, 17. 

3. It will be seen that in certain lines of Epacts (eight 
in all) of the Expanded Table, the Epacts xxiv and 
xxv both occur, and that in these lines xxvi does not 



142 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

occur. Now, seeing that in the Lunar Calendar xxiv 
and xxv are both set opposite to one day of the month, 
if the rule that the Epact for the year falls opposite to the 
New Moon were adhered to in these cases, the inference 
would be that there would be a New Moon on one and the 
same day twice in the same Cycle ; which would be con- 
trary to fact. To guard against this error, the Epact 
twenty-five is distinguished from the rest of the series ; for 
when in the Expanded Table it falls under a Golden Num- 
ber less than twelve, it is then indeed printed in Koman, 
and is set in the Lunar Calendar together with xxiv, and 
is used instead of it. But when the Epact twenty-five falls 
under a Golden Number greater than eleven, it is always 
25, in Arabic, and is set in the Lunar Calendar with 
xxvi opposite to a different day of the month from xxv, 
and is used instead of xxvi ; since xxvi never occurs, and 
consequently cannot be used, in those lines of Epacts which 
contain both twenty-four and twenty-five. 

4. The Epacts 19 and xx opposite to December 31st 
are a remarkable instance of the minute accuracy of the 
Gregorian reformers. The rule is to take the Epact xx 
for that day ; but there is one exception, and that is when 
the Epact xix falls under the Golden Number xix. For the 
intercalary month which is annexed to the last year of the 
Cycle contains only twenty-nine days ; and as the Epact 
xix falls opposite to the 2d of December, it was necessary 
to put the same Epact 19 by the side of xx to show thai; 
this lunation, contrary to the usual order, ended and the 
next began on the 31st of December, and thus to keep the 
number of days of this lunation and the first of the year 
following within the limits of one conjunction. This ex- 
ceptional case can happen only in years the Golden Number 
of which is XIX in the line D, which was in use from 1600 



EPOCH FOE THE LUNAR EQUATIONS. 143 

to 1700, and will not be used again before the year 8600, 
and yet special provision is made for it. 

It now only remains to show the reason of the lunar 
equation being determined to certain centuries rather than 
to others, and how it happened that the line D of the 
Expanded Table of Epacts came to be used in preference 
to any other line of the Table at the time the Calendar was 
reformed. 

In regard to the centuries selected for making the solar 
equation there can be no difficulty ; for when we say that 
in 1582 the Calendar was made to accord with the equi- 
noxes by the elimination of ten days from the month of 
October, and that to preserve this accordance in future one 
day is to be deducted from the Calendar in every one hun- 
dred and thirty-three years, our statement shows the pre- 
cise time at which the first solar equation (if we may apply 
this term to the cancelling of the ten days in 1582) was 
made, and from which all future solar equations are to be 
reckoned. 

But as to the lunar equation the case is different ; for 
there is nothing to determine us to one year rather than 
another as the epoch from which these equations are of 
necessity to be numbered. We see that in order to exhibit 
the changes of the moon, as nearly as may be, in accord- 
ance with the motion of the sun, we must ascend one line 
in the Expanded Table of Epacts, that is, we must add 
one day to the Calendar in every three hundred and twelve 
and a half years, or, to speak in round numbers, one day in 
every three hundred years ; and we see also that in order 
to do this we must have' some epoch from which to proceed, 
some definite year from which to count the tercenaries in 
order to ascertain the centuries in which the lunar equation 
is to be made. But what is the epoch from which we are 



144 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

to begin the reckoning ? The Calendar itself dates from 
A. D. 325, the year of the Council of Nice, and as the 
changes of the moon were then correctly assigned to the 
days of the solar year, the natural presumption is that we 
are to take A. D. 325 for our starting point. But while 
the reformers of the Calendar did take the line P (which is 
the line of Epacts for the century in which the Council 
met) as the line from which to ascend in making the lunar 
equations, it is a curious fact that they did not take the 
year of the Council as the epoch from which to proceed in 
reckoning these equations, but that they chose a year which 
was more than two centuries subsequent. And the reason 
for this procedure is still more curious ; for it amounts in 
fact to this, viz., lest the Calendar should be too accurate, 
that is to say, too near to the astronomical facts. Scientific 
men will at first smile at this seeming paradox, but on 
reflection they will at least confess that the course adopted 
was necessary in order to achieve one main design of the 
Calendar. For the computations of the Calendar being 
founded on the use of a cycle, are of course liable to differ 
a day or two from the astronomical computations. Now if 
the Nicene age, with P for its line of Epacts, had been 
selected as the epoch from which the lunar equations were 
to be reckoned, the Calendar full moons might fall some- 
times a day earlier than the astronomical full moons ; and 
hence it might happen that Easter day according to the 
Calendar would be the Sunday after the Paschal full moon, 
and yet astronomically and in fact would be the day of or 
the day before the full moon. The reformers, therefore, 
while they took the line of Epacts proper to the Nicene 
age, took also in connexion with it a later date, viz., A. D. 
550, as the epoch from which the centuries proper for 
making the lunar equations were to be counted ; and hence 



YEARS FOR THE LUNAR EQUATIONS. 145 

it is that although the Calendar new moons may be one, 
two, or even three days later, yet they never arrive earlier 
than the astronomical new moons. 

In calculating the lunar equations, two things are to be 
noted : 1. That the equation is made at the beginning of 
a century ; and 2. That the proximate number of 3 12 J was 
chosen in preference to one more rigidly correct, because 
the number twelve and a half is a measure of one hundred 
as it is also of fifty. Now it is evident that to add one day 
to the Epacts in every three hundred and twelve and a half 
years is the same thing as to add eight days in two thou- 
sand five hundred years, or four days in one thousand two 
hundred and fifty years (for 312|- x 8 = 2500, and 312J x 
4 == 1250). Hence it was determined that in the course of 
every period of two thousand five hundred years there 
should be eight lunar equations ; the seven first to be made 
at intervals of three hundred years, and the last or eighth 
after an interval of four hundred years. On the same prin- 
ciple three equations, each after an interval of three hun- 
dred years and one after an interval of three hundred and 
fifty years, would cover a period of one thousand two hun- 
dred and fifty years. 

Now let us assume A. D. 550 as the year from which the 
equations are to be reckoned, and P as the line of Epacts 
from which to ascend. "We set out from the year 500, in 
order that every period of three hundred years, which is 
necessary for a lunar equation, may be reckoned from and 
made at the beginning of a century. An interval of three 
hundred years brings us to the year 800 as the century in 
which the first lunar equation is to be made ; and in order 
to make it we ascend one in the Table of Epacts, that is, 
from the line P to the line a. Another three hundred 
years brings us to the year 1100, when we ascend to the 
10 



146 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

line b. In three more centuries we come to the year 1400 
and to the line c in the Expanded Table of Epacts. In the 
year 1582 ten days were expunged from the Calendar, and 
consequently the new moons happen ten days later ; this 
requires us to diminish the Epacts ten days, and to do this 
we descend ten lines in the Table ; that is to say, starting 
from the lioe c, we descend through b, a, P, N, etc., till we 
come to the line D. Hence it was that the line D came 
into use in 1582 when the Calendar was reformed. Thence- 
forward not only the lunar but also the solar equation was 
to be made. The year 1600 was a leap-year, and for this 
reason the solar equation was not required ; and as three 
hundred years had not elapsed since the last lunar equation 
A. D. 1400, the time had not come for another lunar equa- 
tion ; consequently there was no change in the line of Epacts, 
and the line D continued to be used until 1699 inclusive. 
In the year 1700, although three hundred years had elapsed 
since A. D. 1400, yet the lunar equation was deferred until 
the year 1800, in order that the next or fourth lunar 
equation might consist of three hundred and fifty years ; 
which, added to the three previous equations of three hun- . 
dred years each, would make the thousand two hundred 
and fifty years since the year 550, from which it was decided 
that the lunar equations were to be reckoned ; and one 
thousand two hundred and fifty years added to the year 550 
brings us to the year 1800, after which the lunar equations 
would continue to be made forever at the rate of eight in 
two thousand ^.yq hundred years. In 1700, however, the 
withdrawal of the bissextile day rendered necessary the 
solar equation ; and accordingly the line D of the Ex- 
panded Table was discontinued and the line C came into 
use, the effect of which was to diminish the Epacts by 
unity. In 1800, which is also accounted a common year in 



THE SOLAR AND LUNAR EQUATIONS. 147 

the New Style, the withdrawal of the bissextile again ren- 
dered necessary the solar equation ; but in 1800 the time 
had come, as shown above, for the lunar equation ; and as 
the two corrections are diametrically opposite, the former 
requiring us to diminish, the latter to augment the Epacts 
by unity, it is evident that no change was required ; and 
hence the line C, which began to be used in 1700, still con- 
tinues to be used, and will so continue until the year 1899 
inclusive. The year 1900 being also a centurial year, the 
centuries of which cannot be measured by four, will also 
demand the solar equation ; and as there will be no lunar 
equation to offset it, the Epacts will be lessened by unity, 
and we shall descend to the line B. The year 2000, its 
number of centuries being divisible by four, will be a bis- 
sextile under the New Style as it was under the Old ; con- 
sequently there will be no solar equation, and as the time 
will not have come for the lunar equation, there will be no 
change in the Epacts, and the line B will continue in use. 
In the year 2100, both equations will be called for, but as 
they will neutralize one another, no change in the line of 
Epacts will be required, and the line B, which was intro- 
duced in 1900, will continue to be used until the end of 
the year 2199. In 2200 the solar equation, and it alone, 
will be made, and we shall descend to the line A. In 2300 
the solar equation will again occur, and as there will be no 
lunar equation to compensate it, we shall descend to the 
line u. The year 2400 is a bissextile in which there can 
be no solar equation, but then the lapse of three hundred 
years will require the lunar equation, and we shall conse- 
quently return to the line A. In like manner we are to 
proceed in all future centuries ; observing that after seven 
lunar equations shall have been made at intervals of three 
hundred years, the eighth is to be made after an interval 



J.4S THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

of four hundred years ; one hundred years being added to 
the last equation in order, as already explained, to absorb 
the twelve and a half years which were omitted in each of 
the preceding seven ; so that the augmentation of the 
Epacts may be equal to one day in three hundred and 
twelve and a half years. The first interval of four hundred 
years will occur between the years 3900 and 4300, and thus 
complete a period of two thousand five hundred years, 
counting from the year 1800. The second will occur be- 
tween the years 6400 and 6800, which, counting from the 
year 4300, will complete another period of two thousand 
five hundred years. 

What has been said will be better understood by an 
inspection of the annexed Table, taken from the " De 
Doctrina Temporum " of Petavius. (See page 149.) 

This Table contains ^.yq columns. In the first column 
are the days (besides those that were expunged in 1582) 
which belonged indeed to the Old Calendar, but which are 
omitted in the reformed Calendar. The second column 
contains the indices or letters of the several lines of Epacts 
set opposite to the centuries in which they are to be used ; 
the centuries themselves being placed in the third column. 
The letter B in the fourth column marks the years from 1 
to 1400, which were bissextile in the Old Calendar ; and 
after the year 1582, those centuries which are bissextile in 
the New or reformed Calendar. In the fifth column the 
single asterisk * serves to designate the lunar equation 
which is to be made at the end of three hundred years ; 
and the double asterisk the lunar equation which is to be 
made at the end of four hundred years. For the sake of 
completeness, the Table is made to begin with the Birth 
of Christ, at which time the Epacts would evidently have 
been one less than they were three hundred years afterwards 



EQUATION OF THE E PACTS, 



149 



TABLE OF THE EQUATION OF THE EPACTS. 




i 

© 

o 

m 

!2 

(0 

fit 

» 
O 

3D 

1 


as 
0> 

o 
o 


02 

u 

t 






13 

! 

m 
>> 
a 
P 


DO 

0) 

O 


OQ 

u 

& 


OB 




P 


1 
325 


B. 
B. 




22 
23 

24 
24 


K 
K 
i 

i 


4500 
4600 
4700 
4800 


B. 


* 


P 

a 
b 
c 

TEt 


500 

800 
1100 
1400 

r DATS CA1 


B. 
B. 
B. 
B. 

rCELIJ 


* 
* 
* 

:d. 


25 
26 
27 

27 


i 
h 

9 
h 


4900 
5000 
5100 
5200 


B. 


* 


B 
B 


1582 
1600 


B. 




28 
29 
30 
30 


9 
f 
f 
f 


5300 
5400 
5500 
5600 


B. 


* 


1 

2 
3 
3 


C 

c 

B 
B 


1700 
1800 
1900 
2000 


B. 


* * 


31 
32 
33 

33 


e 
e 
d 
d 


5700 
5800 
5900 
6000 


B. 


* 
* 


4 
5 
6 
6 


B 

A 
u 
A 


2100 
2200 
2300 
2400 


B. 


* 
* 


34 
35 
36 
36 


d 
c 
b 
c 


6100 
6200 
6300 
6400 


B. 


7 
8 
9 
9 


u 
t 
t 
t 


2500 
2600 
2700 
2800 


B. 


* 


37 

38 
39 
39 


b 
a 
P 

a 


6500 
6600 
6700 
6800 


B. 


* * 

* 


10 
11 
12 
12 


s 

T 

r 


2900 
3000 
3100 
3200 


B. 


* 


40 
41 

42 
42 


P 

jsr 
jsr 


6900 
7000 

7100 
7200 


B. 


13 
14 
15 
15 


r 
<Z 
P 


3300 
3400 
3500 
3600 


B. 


* 


43 
44 
45 
45 


M 
M 
H 
E 


7300 
7400 
7500 
7600 


B. 


* 


16 

17 
18 
18 


P 
n 
m 
n 


3700 
3800 
3900 
4000 


B. 


* 


46 

47 
48 
48 


H 

a 

F 

a 


7700 
7800 
7900 
8000 


B. 


* 
* 


19 
20 

21 

21 


m 
I 

I 
I 


4100 
4200 
4300 
4400 


B. 


* # 


49 


F 


8100 







150 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

at the Council of Nice ; and therefore the line N is set 
opposite to the first year of the Christian era. Thus the 
Table shows at a glance the history — past and prospective 
— of the two equations ; the years from which they may be 
said to take their beginning, the centuries in which they 
are made, the line of Epacts proper to each century, and 
the number of days which have been expunged, or which 
hereafter will be expunged, from the Old Style of the Cal- 
endar, in order to reform it or adapt it to the New Style. 
The Table extends to eight thousand five hundred years, 
because (one line of the Epacts being used sometimes for 
two or three centuries together, and at other times the 
same line being used twice) this is the least period in which 
the entire thirty lines of the Epacts can be brought into 
play. But as far as the system is concerned, we may, at 
the end of one revolution of eight thousand ^vq hundred 
years, enter on another of the same duration, and use the 
same Table over again ; and so continue for perpetual ages. 

Clavius, with consummate ingenuity, has reduced the 
whole into a brief compendium, called " The Perpetual 
" Cycle of the Epacts ; " which, like the Table of the 
Equations, is used for finding the Epact of the year. 

To form the compendium, you begin with A. D. 325, the 
year of the Nicene Council, when the Golden Number was 
III, the moon was new on the 1st of January, and P was 
the index for the century. Write first *, the symbol of the 
interlunium = or 30, and set over it P. Form the 
Epacts from * by continually adding eleven, until you have 
completed a Cycle ; that is, until you come to an Epact 
which, increased by eleven, brings you back to the symbol 
from which you started ; and as you have already set P 
over the symbol *, so, in like manner, over each succeeding 
Epact set the index which stands at the left of the said 



COMPENDIUM OF THE E PACTS. 



151 



Epact under the Golden Number III in the Expanded 
Table of Epacts. You will then have the thirty Epacts of 
the Cycle, and over them the thirty letters which are 
indices for the centuries. The compendium will then stand 
as follows : 

The Perpetual Cycle of the Epacts. 



P. 


;. 


C. 


c. 


P- 


F. 


/• 


s. 


M. 


i. 


A. 


a. 


m. 


D. 


a. 


Q- 


* xi 


xxii 


iii 


xrv 


xxv, 25 


vi 


xvii 


xxviii 


ix 


XX 


i 


xn 


xxiii 


iv 


XV 




G. 


g- 


t. 


N. 


k. 


B. 


b. 


n. 


E. 


e. 


r. 


H. 


h. 


u. 


xxvi 


vii 


xviii 


xxix 


X 


xxi 


ii 


xiii 


xxiv 


V 


xri 


xxvii 


viii 


xix 



By means of this compendium, we may find at once the 
Epact for a given year in any century ; having only the 
Golden Number for the given year and the index of the 
century (which you get from the Table of Equations) in 
which the given year occurs. Thus : Look in the compen- 
dium for the letter which is the index of the century ; and 
having found it assume the third place (both inclusive) to 
the left to be the place for the Golden Number I ; and 
from I count to the right (beginning the Cycle anew if 
necessary), until you come to the Golden Number for the 
given year ; and there you find the Epact for the said year. 
For example : 

Kequired the Epact for 1872, the Golden Number being 
eleven. 

In the Table of the Equation of the Epacts you find that 
the index for 1800 is C ; look for C in the compendium, 
and having found it, assume that the third place to the left 

(which is -pr) is the place for the Golden Number I ; count 



152 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



thence to eleven (both inclusive), and in this place you find 

A 

— ; which shows that xx is the Epact for 1872. 

XX. 

Kequired the Epact for 1918. 

The index of the century is B, and the Golden Number 
for the given year is 19. Look for B in the compendium, 

and let the third place to the left (viz., — — ) be the place 

\ xxix/ r 

for the G-olden Number I ; count thence up to nineteen 
and you come to — .-, showing that xvii will be the Epact 
for A. D. 1918. 

p. S.— In "The Table of Equations/' etc., page 149, the 
reckoning begins with the first year of the Christian era, 
and is continued to the line F. A. D. 8100. In 8200 the solar 
equation will require us to descend to the line E. In 8300 
the two equations neutralize one another, and in 8400 
neither equation will be necessary, and consequently the 
line E will continue in use until A. D. 8499. In 8500 the 
solar equation will oblige us to descend to the line D ; the 
same line with which the reformed Calendar began in A. D. 
1582. Whence it appears that a period of 8500 years is 
necessary for a complete revolution of the Epacts. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The effect of the New Style on the order of the Dominical Letters — The 
Table of the Dominical Letters for the years of the Christian era 
under the New Style — Remarks — Revolution of the Letters — No 
schedule of the Letters like that of the Old Style for perpetual use — 
Schedule for the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries 
respectively — Rationale of the rule given in the Prayer Book for 
finding the Dominical Letter — And of the first General Table — Sim- 
plification of the rule by rejecting the centuries. 

THE reformation of the Calendar in reference to those 
ends which fit it for perpetual use, was purchased at 
the expense of some advantages in matters of less moment. 
In particular, the conversion of certain hissextile years into 
common years rendered the order of the Dominical Letters 
which was in use before the reformation inapplicable to 
subsequent times ; and the readjustment of the Letters not 
only marred the simplicity of the old order, but deprived us 
also of certain conveniences which were peculiar to it. The 
Church, however, still continues to use the same Dominical 
and Ferial Letters which she had used for a thousand years 
before the reformation, and for the same important pur- 
poses ; and hence it is incumbent on us to investigate the 
changes which were introduced and the effects of them. 

Two changes were made in the Dominical Letters, the 
one immediate and the other prospective. In the first 
place, ten Calendar days were at once cancelled ; in conse- 
quence of which the day which in the Old Style would have 
been Wednesday, the 17th of October, with its ferial letter 
c, became in the New Style Sunday, the 7th of October, 



154 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



with C for the Dominical Letter. In the second place, it 
was determined that three out of every four secular years 
which had been bissextile years in the Old Style, with two 
letters each, should be taken to be common years under the 
New Style, and consequently have each but one letter. 
Let us examine these provisions more particularly. 
The reformation went into operation October 5th, 1582, 
and its first effect was to cancel ten nominal days in the 
Calendar, viz., the days from the 5th to the 14th of Octo- 
ber, both inclusive. In that year the Dominical Letter of 
the Old Style was G ; and as a is the proper letter for the 
1st of October, the month began in that year on Monday. 
Hence the suppression of the ten nominal days brought 
Sunday to the letter c, and consequently made C the 
Dominical Letter of the New Style for the rest of the 
year ; as may be seen from the schedule in the margin, 
where the first day of October being in that year Monday, 
the fourth was Thursday, and, not counting the ten can- 
celled days, the fifth was Friday, the sixth was Saturday, 
and the seventh (formerly the seventeenth) 
was Sunday, with C instead of G for the 
Dominical Letter for the rest of the year 
1582. To this change the Letters for subse- 
quent years of course conformed, so that from 
Sunday, October 7th, 1582, New Style, the 
Dominical Letters would move in retrograde 
order, as follows ; 



OCTOBEB. 

Days. Let. 

1 a 

2 6 


3... 


. . . .c 


4... 


d 




5... 


. . . .e 


6... 


....f 


7... 


J G 


8... 


. . . .a 


9... 


b 


10... 


.. . .c 


11... 


d 


12... 


. . . .e 


13... 


..../" 


14... 


J a 




5... 


. . .a 


6... 


6 


7... 


. . . .r. 





c 

F 


B 
E 


A 

± 

D 


F 
C 


E 

B 

A 


G 


C 
B 

F 


A 
E 


Gt 

D 
C 


F 
B 


E 

D 

A 


C 
G 


B 

F 

E 


A 
D 



DOMINICAL LETTERS — NEW STYLE. 155 

and this order was continued until the year 1700, when it 
was interrupted, as we are next to explain, by the with- 
drawal of one of the centurial letters. 

The effect, then, of the other change, viz., that which in 
three centuries out of every four required the conversion of 
the secular years from bissextiles with two letters into 
common years with but one letter each, will be best under- 
stood by a reference to the following Table, which contains 
the Dominical Letters arranged according to the New Style 
for the first four thousand years of the Christian era. (See 
page 156.) 

This Table, like that for the Old Style, assumes that the 
Christian era began in the tenth year of the Solar Cycle ; 
and consequently B, which denotes the tenth year of the 
Cycle, is set opposite to the first year of the Christian era. 
The letter which is next to B in the Cycle, in the retro- 
grade order, is C ; C, therefore, is set next above B, and is 
used in the construction of the Table for a Centurial Letter. 
We have not D C, as in the corresponding place, in the 
Table for the Old Style, but only C, because the centuries 
which stand above it, and for which it is to be used, are 
such as are to be taken for common years in the New Style. 

From B the letters proceed the same as in the Old Style, 
until we come to the year 199 inclusive. The letter for 
199 is F ; and as the year 200 is a common year, we have 
not E D, as in the Old Style, but only E ; the D passing on 
to the next year. The letter for 299 is A, and as the year 
300 is also a common year, it has not Gr A, but only G, 
leaving the A for the year following. The year 399 is C, 
and as the year 400 is a bissextile, it takes the next two 
letters, viz., B A. The year 499 is D, which gives us C 
for the year 500, the same as for the year 100 ; which 
shows that the permutations of the Centurial Letters are 



156 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 



Table of the Dominical Letters for 4000 tears after Christ 
according to the new style of the calendar. 











HUNDREDS OF TEAKS AETEB CHRIST. 




100 


200 


300 


400 




500 


600 


700 


800 




900 


1000 


1100 


1200 




1300 


1400 


1500 


1600 


YEAES UNDER 


1700 


1800 


1900 


2000 


ONE HUNDRED. 


2100 


2200 


2300 


2400 




2500 


2600 


2700 


2800 




2900 


3000 


3100 


3200 




3300 


3400 


3500 


3000 




3700 


3800 


3900 


4000 




C 


E 


G 


B A 


1 


29 


57 


85 


B 


D 


P 


G 


2 


30 


58 


86 


A 


C 


E 


F 


.3 


31 


59 


87 


6 


B 


D 


E 


4 


32 


60 


88 


F E 


A G 


C B 


D C 


5 


33 


61 


89 


D 


F 


A 


B 


6 


34 


62 


90 


C 


E 


G 


A 


7 


35 


63 


91 


B 


D 


F 


G 


8 


36 


64 


92 


AG 


C B 


E D 


F E 


9 


37 


65 


93 


P 


A 


C 


D 


10 


33 


66 


94 


E 


G 


B 


C 


11 


39 


67 


95 


D 


F 


A 


B 


12 


40 


68 


96 


C B 


E D 


G P 


A G 


13 


•41 


69 


97 


A 


C 


E 


F 


14 


42 


70 


98 


G 


B 


D 


E 


15 


43 


71 


99 


P 


A 


C 


D 


16 


44 


72 




ED 


G F 


B A 


CB 


17 


45 


73 




C 


E 


G 


A 


18 


46 


74 




B 


D 


P 


G 


19 


47 


75 




A 


C 


E 


P 


20 


48 


76 




GF 


B A 


D C 


ED 


21 


49 


77 




E 


G 


B 


C 


22 


50 


78 




D 


P 


A 


B 


23 


51 


79 




C 


E 


G 


A 


24 


52 


80 




B A 


D C 


F E 


G F 


25 


53 


81 




G 


B 


D 


E 


26 


54 


82 




F 


A 


C 


D 


27 


55 


83 




E 


G 


B 


C 


28 


56 


84 




D C 


F E 


A G 


B A 



THE CENTURIAL LETTERS. 157 

exhausted, and that they will return in the same order in 
every four hundred years. 

Now it deserves to be noted that the Table, when thus 
arranged, makes C to be the Dominical Letter for 1582 ; 
so that the two changes, viz., the omission of ten days in 
the sixteenth century and the suppression of three letters 
in every four hundred years, without regard to that omis- 
sion, conspire in producing one and the same result. This 
is as it should be ; for the two changes looked to the same 
object, the only difference being that the one corrected an 
error, against the repetition of which the other was designed 
to guard. The cancelling of the ten days in 1582 merely 
shows what the Dominical Letter would have been in 1582 
if the intention of the original authors of the Calendar had 
been realized ; the reformed Table simply shows how that 
intention is to be realized, and how it might have been 
realized continuously from the beginning of the Christian 
era. Hence the two changes, though in a certain true sense 
independent of one another, converge to the same result, 
and thus mutually confirm one another. 

It is strangely asserted in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 
(see seventh edition, on the word " Calendar ") that " In 
" the reformed Calendar the intercalary period is four hun- 
" dred years, which number, being multiplied by seven, 
" gives two thousand eight hundred years as the interval in 
" which the coincidence is restored between the days of the 
" year and the days of the week. This long period, how- 
" ever, may be reduced to four hundred years," etc. But 
while the letters move at the same intervals, how is it pos- 
sible that the diminution of their number should retard 
their return ? Besides, an inspection of the Table for the 
Dominical Letters according to the New Style will show 
that in the years from 1 to 99 inclusive in every century, 



158 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

the Letters follow the law of the Solar Cycle and repeat 
themselves once in every twenty-eight years ; and thus 
restore in the same interval the coincidence between the 
days of the week and the days of the year. The truth is 
that in the New Style as well as the Old, the coincidence 
of the day of the week and the day of the year is restored 
once in twenty-eight years, and that the suppression of the 
letters in the centurial years affects only the revolution of 
the Centurial Letters, and serves to accelerate and not to 
retard their return. In the Old Style every secular year 
had two letters, while in the New Style three out of every 
four secular years have but one letter each. The suppres- 
sion is limited to the secular years, and does not include 
the years between the centuries. Now the whole number 
of letters is seven, and the suppression of three in four 
hundred years is equivalent to the withdrawal of three 
letters from the series. The revolution, therefore, of the 
letters in the secular years will be in the ratio of 7 to 4 ; 
and as the whole series will revolve one hundred times in 
seven hundred years, so the four will revolve the same 
number of times in four hundred years. The seven letters 
revolved four times in twenty-eight years, and consequently 
an integral number of times in every multiple of 28, and 
the first secular year which is a multiple of 28 is 700 ; the 
/four letters revolve four times in sixteen years, and conse- 
quently an integral number of times in every multiple of 
16, and the first secular year which is a multiple of 16 is 
400. In the one case we have 7 x 4 x 25 = 700 ; and in 
the other we have 4 x 4 x 25 = 400. This statement 
shows the reason for the different arrangement of the hun- 
dreds in the two tables of the Old and New Styles ; and it 
shows also that in both styles the letters return and restore 
the coincidence between the days of the week and the days 



REVOLUTION OF THE LETTERS. 



159 



of the year once in twenty-eight years ; and that the only 
difference is that the Centurial Letters revolve more slowly 
in the one case than in the other. 

Of course the Centurial Letters will revolve only once in 
four hundred years ; but this, for the reason above given, 
is so far from retarding, that it accelerates the revolution 
of the Cycle, causing its letters to revolve in the New Style 
once in twenty-four years, and not once in twenty-eight 
years, as in the Old Style. This will appear from an 
inspection of the table of Mr. Kivet, given in Wheatly ; in 
which it will be observed that only the leap-years are ex- 
pressed, and that the years 1700, 1800, 1900, are not 
expressed, but are understood, like the other common 
years, to take each one letter only, counting from the leap- 
year next preceding. The Table begins with the first leap- 
year after the reformation. 





A. G. 


C.B. 


E. T>. 


G. F. 


B. A. 


D. C. 


F. E. 




F. E. D. 


A. G. F. 


C. B. A. 


E. D. C. 


G. F. E. 


B. A. G. 


D. C. B. 




1584 


88 


92 


96 


























1600 

28 


4 
32 


8 




1612 


16 


20 


24 


36 





40 


44 


48 


52 


56 


60 


64 




68 


72 


76 


80 


84 


88 


92 




96 














*■ 












f 














1704 




1708 


12 


16 


20 


24 


28 


32 


\\ 


36 


40 


44 


48 


52 


56 


60 


1 


64 


68 


72 


76 


80 


84 


88 




92 


96 






















r 


1804 


8 


12 


16 


20 


24 


28 


3 


32 


36 


40 


44 


48 


52 


56 


60 


64 


68 


72 


76 


80 


84 




88 


92 


96 




















r 




1904 


8 


12 


16 


20 


24 


3 


28 


32 


36 


40 


44 


48 


52 


56 


60 


64 


68 


72 


76 


80 




84 


88 


92 


96 


























2000 


4 


8 















In the Old Style of the Calendar, as before remarked, 
the order of the letters in the Solar Cycle suffered no 



160 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



change, and was of perpetual use. The letters as given, 
page 42, stand thus : 



1 


GF 


5 BA 


9 


DC 


13 


FE 


17 


AG 


21 


CB 


25 ED 


2 


E 


6 g 


10 


B 


14 


D 


18 


F 


22 


A 


26 C 


3 


D 


7 F 


11 


A 


15 


c 


19 


E 


23 


G 


27 B 


4 


c 


8 E 


12 


G 


16 


B 


20 


D 


24 


F 


28 A 



And whatever be the year of the Christian era, we have 
only to add to it 9 and divide the sum by 28, and opposite 
to the remainder, or, if there be no remainder, opposite to 
28, we find the Dominical Letter for the year according to 
the Old Style. 

In the New Style, however, the removal in every one of 
three out of four centuries of a Centurial Letter renders it 
impossible to construct a Table of this sort for perpetual 
use. The nearest approach to it is a Table which may be 
used for particular centuries. The following Table was 
suited to the last century, i. e., from 1700 to 1799 in- 
clusive : 



1 


DC 


5 FE 


9 


AG 


13 


CB 


17 


ED 


21 GF 


25 BA 


2 


B 


6 D 


10 


F 


14 


A 


18 


c 


22 E 


26 G 


3 


A 


7 C 


11 


E 


15 


G 


19 


B 


23 D 


27 F 


4 


G 


8 B 


12 


D 


16 


F 


20 


A 


24 C 


28 E 



The following Table is suited to the present century, 
i. e., from 1800 to 1899 inclusive : 



1 


ED 


5 GF 


9 


BA 


13 


DC 


17 


FE 


21 AG 


25 CB 


2 


C 


6 E 


10 


G 


14 


B 


18 


D 


22 F 


26 A 


3 


B 


7 D 


11 


F 


15 


A 


19 


C 


23 E 


27 G 


4 


A 


8 C 


12 


E 


16 


G 


20 


B 


24 D 


28 F 



And the following Table will be suited to the next cen- 
tury, that is, from 1900 to 1999 inclusive : 



1 


FE 


5 AG 


9 


CB 


13 


ED 


17 


GF 


21 


BA 


25 DC 


2 


D 


6 F 


10 


A 


14 


C 


18 


E 


22 


G 


26 B 


3 


C 


7 E 


11 


G 


15 


B 


19 


D 


23 


F 


27 A 


4 


B 


8 D 


12 


F 


16 


A 


20 


C 


24 


E 


28 G 



RULE FOR FINDING THE SUNDAY LETTER. 161 

These Tables are to be used in their respective centuries, 
exactly as the corresponding Table for the Old Style is 
used for any and every century of the Old Style ; i. e., you 
add 9 to the given year, divide the sum by 28, and opposite 
to the remainder, if there be a remainder, or if not, opposite 
to 28, in the Table proper for the century, you find the 
Dominical Letter or Letters which belongs to the given 
year. Some anomalies, however, such as never occur in the 
Old Style, are unavoidable. In the first Table, for exam- 
ple, or that from 1700 to 1799, in order to provide two 
letters for the leap-years 1728, 1756, and 1784, we are 
obliged to assign two letters to the year 1700, which, being 
a common year under the New Style, has but one letter. 
A similar remark is applicable to the Table from 1800 to 
1899, and to that from 1900 to 1999. 

The above method, however, of finding the Dominical 
Letter under the New Style is cumbersome, and has given 
place to others more expeditious ; the best of which is that 
of the English and American Calendar given in " A Table 
"to find Easter from the present time to the year 1899 
" inclusive ; " which is as follows : 

" To find the Dominical or Sunday Letter, according to 
" the Calendar, until the year 1899, inclusive, 
" add to the year of our Lord its fourth part, 
" omitting fractions, divide the sum by 7, and 
" if there be no remainder, then A is the Sunday 
" Letter ; but if any number remain, then the 
" letter standing against that number in the 
" small annexed Table is the Sunday Letter. 

"Note, that in all bissextile or leap-years, the letter 
" found as above will be the Sunday Letter from the inter- 
" calated day exclusive, to the end of the year." 

In this form the rule is applicable only to the present 
11 






A 


1 


G 


2 


F 


3 


E 


4 


D 


5 


C 


6 


B 



162 



THE CHURCH C ALE N EAR 



century, and will not again be applicable before the year 
2700 ; but in the first of our " General Tables/' the rule is 
given in such form as to make it applicable to any century : 

General Table for finding the Dominical or Sunday Letter according to 
the New Style of the Calendar. 



6 


5 


4 


3 


2 


1 





B 


C 


D 


E 


F 


Gt 


A 










1600 


1700 


1800 


1900 
2000 


2100 


2200 


2300 
2400 


2500 


2600 


2700 
2800 


2900 


3000 1 gjg 


3300 


3400 


3500 
3600 


3700 


3800 


3900 
4000 


4100 


4200 


4300 
4400 


4500 


4600 


4700 
4800 


4900 


5000 


5100 
5200 


5300 


5400 


5500 
5600 


5700 


5800 


5900 
6000 


6100 


6200 


6300 
6400 


6500 


6600 


6700 
6800 


6900 


7000 


7100 
7200 


7300 


7400 


7500 > 7Tnft 
7600 " 00 


7800 


7900 
8000 


8100 


8200 


8300 
8400 


8500 


&c. 













To find the Dominical or Sunday Letter for any given year of our 
Lord, add to the year its fourth part, omitting fractions, and also the 
number, which, in Table I, standeth at the top of the column wherein 
the number of hundreds contained in that given year is found : Divide 
the sum by 7. and if there be no remainder, then A is the Sunday Letter ; 
but if any number remain, then the Letter which standeth under that 
number at the top of the Table is the Sunday Letter. 

The General Kule contains the following directions : 

1. To add to the year its fourth part, omitting fractions. 

2. To add to the sum thus obtained a number which, for 
certain centuries, varies from 1 to 6, both inclusive. 



RATIONALE OF THE RULE. 163 

3. To divide the entire sum thus obtained by seven. 

These directions may be best explained in a reverse 
order. To begin, then, with the last : 

The number of years is supposed to form an equi-different 
series, increasing by unity, from 1 to 8500. Now if we take 
any member of this series, which is a multiple of 7, and 
divide it and the members which follow it by 7, the re- 
mainders will repeat themselves in the following order, viz., 
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ; and as the Dominical Letters always 
repeat themselves in the order in which they are formed, 
viz., A, G, F, E, D, C, B, the ciphers which remain, after 
dividing the series by 7, are made to serve as indices to the 
letters ; so that always means A ; 1, Gr ; 2, F ; 3, E ; 
4, D ; 5, C ; and 6, B. Whence it appears that the pre- 
cise reason for dividing the sum by 7 is that we may obtain 
for the remainder such a number as shall be the index of 
the letter of which we are in search. 

Hence also it appears that the reason for adding to the 
given year augmented by its fourth part one of the figures 
at the head of the Table, is that the remainders, after the 
division is performed, may, in all cases, be the true indices 
to the letters arranged in their normal order. 

The reason for adding to the year its fourth part before 
dividing by 7, is that in every fourth year we are obliged 
to leap a letter and consequently its index ; that is to say, 
we need to obtain an index which is two, instead of one, 
greater than that of the letter for the year next preceding. 
Now if we divide by 7 an arithmetical series growing by 
unity, the remainder after each division is only one greater 
than that which preceded it ; but if we would make the 
remainder for every fourth year greater by two instead of 
one, we must add to every member of the series its fourth 
part ; omitting fractions, because we are concerned only 



1G4 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

with whole numbers, and are simply aiming to make every 
fourth dividend (and consequently its remainder) one more 
than that which was next before it. Take, for example, in 
a century under the column A, any four years of which the 
three first are common years and the fourth a bissextile ; 
say 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872. Add to the number of 
each year its fourth part, omitting fractions, and divide the 
sum by 7, and your remainders for the three first years are 
5, 6, ; which are the indices respectively for the letters 
C, B, A ; while the fourth remainder is two, which is the 
index of F ; showing that you have leaped the letter Gl- 
and its index 1, and that the Dominical Letters for 1872 
are G F * the former serving from the first of January to 
the intercalated day inclusive, and the latter for the rest 
of the year. We may take the four years from a century 
which is not in the column under A, only observing to add 
to the dividend, before dividing by 7, the figure which 
stands at the head of the column from which the century 
is taken. 

The above rule may be simplified by rejecting the centu- 
ries. Thus : If the year belong to a bissextile century, 
reject the centuries and add to the remaining years their 
fourth part (omitting fractions) and divide the sum by 7 ; 
if there be no remainder, then A is the Sunday Letter ; but 
the remainder, if there be one, will be the index of the 
Dominical Letter. If the year belong to a century which 
is one less than a bissextile century, then reject the centu- 
ries as before, and to the year which remains increased by 
its fourth part, add 1 ; if to a century which is two less, 
proceed as before and add 3 ; and if to a century which is 
three less, proceed as before and add 5 to the sum before 
dividing by 7 ; and the remainder in each case will indicate 
the letter as above. 



REJECTION OF THE CENTURIES. 1G5 

EXAMPLES. 

Required the Dominical Letter for 1649. Here the cen- 
tury is a bissextile ; reject the centuries ; and then dividing 

(49\ 
49 + -j-\ — 61 by 7, we have a remainder of 5 ; and C is 

the Dominical Letter. 

Required the Dominical Letter for 1949. Here the cen- 
tury is one less than a bissextile ; and therefore, rejecting 
the centuries, to the year 49 increased by its fourth part 12, 
we add 1 before dividing by 7 ; and 62 -j- 7 gives a re- 
mainder of 6, which shows that B is the Dominical Letter 
for 1949. 

Required the Dominical Letter for 1871. The century 
being two less than a bissextile, we add 3 to the oiim before 

71 

dividing by 7 ; and 71 + -r + 3 = 91, which, being a mul- 
tiple of 7, gives no remainder ; showing that the Dominical 
Letter for 1871 is A. 

Required the Dominical Letter for 1799. As the century 
is three less than a bissextile, we are to add 5 before divid- 
ing by 7. Rejecting the centuries, therefore, as before, we 

99 
have 99 + -j + 5 = 128 ; and dividing 128 by 7, we have 

a remainder of 2, which shows that F is the letter required. 

EXPLANATION. 

The reason of this rule, so far as it differs from the above 
common rule, is to be found in the number and relative 
positions of the centurial letters in the reformed Calendar. 
These, counting two to the bissextile, are five in number, 
and repeat themselves in the same order every four hundred 
years ; A being always the letter for a bissextile century ; 
G- for a century which is one less, E for a century which is 



166 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

two less, and C for a century which is three less than a 
bissextile century. The letters of the three centuries which 
are counted as common years are thus seen to recede from 
the bissextile letter, 1 for the first century, viz., from A to 
Gr ; 3 for the second century, viz., from A to E ; and 5 for 
the remaining century, viz., from A to C, the letters being 
taken in retrograde order ; and hence in these centuries 
respectively (having rejected the centuries) we add one, 
three, or five to the sum of the remaining years augmented 
by its fourth part ; in order that this sum, divided by 7, 
may give the remainder, which in the normal arrangement 
of the letters represents the letter which is sought. 

N. B. — When A (as above) is said to be the letter for a 
bissextile year, it is always understood to denote the letter 
which is used from the intercalary day to the end of the 
year ; the letter next before it, in retrograde order, being 
that which is used from January 1st to February 24th. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Paschal Term — Unequal division of the Lunar month — The Paschal 
Term one of twenty-nine days — Easter one of thirty-five — Rules for 
finding the Epact of the year — Table of the Golden Numbers — Num- 
ber of Direction — Gauss's formula for finding Easter — Rationale of 
the formula — Facility of its application. 

ONE thing more remains to be more particularly con- 
sidered before we can enter intelligently on a review 
of the Tables in the Prayer Book Calendar ; and that is, 
the Paschal Term. 

The function of the Paschal Term is to help us in find- 
ing Easter. It consists of but; one day, though the day on 
which it falls varies in different years. It was used under 
the Old Style as it is under the New ; and under both on 
the same days of the month ; the cancelling of the ten 
nominal days at the time of the reformation having had no 
other effect on the Paschal Terms than to restore them to 
their original conformity with astronomical truth. 

The moon or lunar month in which Easter falls is called 
the Paschal Moon, and sometimes the month Nisan. It 
does not coincide with any solar or civil month, but com- 
prises a part of the month of March and a part of the 
month of April ; never beginning earlier than the 8th day 
of March, nor later than the 5th day of April. 

The Calendar, after the example of the ancient Hebrews, 
reckons the age of the moon from its phasis or first appear- 
ance ; and is hence led to divide the synodical month into 
unequal parts of fourteen and sixteen days ; from new to 
full being fourteen, and from full to new sixteen, the inter- 



168 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

lunium, or time of the non-appearance, being thrown into 
the latter part. Hence it is that we reckon from March 
8th to March 21st, being fourteen days inclusive, for the 
full moon ; but from March 21st to April 5th, sixteen days 
inclusive, for the utmost limit. 

When the Paschal Moon begins on the 8th of March, it 
is full on the 21st of March ; from the 8th to the 21st of 
March, both inclusive, being fourteen days. When the 
Paschal Moon begins on the 5th of April, it is full on the 
18th of April, because from the 5th of April to the 18th of 
April, both inclusive, are fourteen days. Hence as March 
8th is the earliest day and April 5th is the latest day on 
which the Paschal Moon can begin, so the 21st day of 
March is the earliest day and the 18th of April is the latest 
day on which the Paschal Moon can be full. 

Now the Paschal Term is that day of the solar year on 
which is the full moon next before Easter ; or as the moon 
is full on its fourteenth day, the Paschal Term may be 
defined to be the day of the solar year which coincides with 
the fourteenth day of the Paschal Moon. 

The interval from the 8th of March to the 5th of April 
comprises twenty-nine days ; on any one of these days the 
Paschal Moon may begin ; and the addition of thirteen to 
the day of the solar year on which the Paschal Moon 
begins, gives us the day on which it is full ; and this day 
is the Paschal Term for that year. So that the Paschal 
Term may be any one of twenty-nine days. But although 
the Paschal Term may be any one of the twenty-nine days 
which intervene between the 21st of March and the 18th 
of April, both inclusive, yet Easter day has a somewhat 
wider range ; and that because Easter depends on the day 
of the week as well as on the day of the month. For the 
Sunday next after the Paschal Term may perchance be one 



TO FIND EASTER AND THE EPACT. 169 

day after it, or it may be six days after it. If the Paschal 
Term happens to be March 21st, and that day happens to 
be Saturday, then Easter day is the 22d of March. But if 
the Paschal Term happens to be April 18th, and that day 
happens to be Sunday, then Easter day is the Sunday fol- 
lowing, viz., April 25th. So that although the Paschal 
Term must fall on some one of twenty-nine, yet Easter may 
be any one of thirty-five different days ; the earliest possible 
Easter being March 22cl, and the latest possible being April 
25th, and that not for this century only but for all time. 

To find Easter for a given year by the reformed Lunar 
Calendar, as already explained, we enter the Calendar with 
the Epact for the year ; and the first day parallel to it 
after the 8th of March, inclusive, is the day of the Paschal 
New Moon ; to which add 13 and you have the Paschal 
Term ; and the first day after it which has the Dominical 
Letter for the year is Easter day. 

The way of finding the Epact for the year by the Ex- 
panded Table of Epacts has been already explained. Short 
schedules adjusting the Epacts to the Golden Numbers for 
particular centuries have also been given. The correspon- 
dence of the Golden Numbers and the Epacts for the time 
of two cycles of the moon is continually exhibited in our 
Prayer Book. But as the Epacts for the year grow by 11, 
we may always find the Epact for the year without the use 
of the above ways, by multiplying the Epact of the Golden 
Number of the previous year by 11, and dividing by 30, 
when the remainder will be the Epact for the current year. 
For Example, the Epact of 1870, the Golden Number of 

which is IX, is ( — ^— = 2 + 28] twenty-eight, or the 

number which remains after dividing the product of 8 and 
11 by 30. So that taking N for the Golden Number for 



170 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

the year, we have the following formula in which the Epaet 
for the year is equal to K ; viz., 11 ^ — ^—1 = q -f K. 

As the same line of Epacts continues to be used for at 
least one hundred, and it may be for three hundred years 
together, it may be presumed to be known for all ordinary 
purposes ; and for other purposes it may always be learned 
by reference to the Table, pp. 132, 133. In fact, therefore, 
all that is commonly needed besides the Dominical Letter in 
order to find Easter for a given year, is to know the year of 
the Lunar Cycle which is coincident with the given year ; 
in other words, the Golden Number for the said year — the 
rule for finding which is given in our Prayer Book Calen- 
dar, and has been already explained in the present treatise. 
These Numbers, which are the same under both Styles, are 
digested in the following Table for four thousand years 
after the Christian epoch. The centuries are placed on the 
left and the years from to 99 at the top ; the Golden 
Numbers being found at the points where the lines from 
the left and the top intersect each other. Thus to find the 
Golden Number for 1870, look for 1800 on the left of the 
Table and for 70 at the top ; and where the line from the 
side meets that from the top you find 9 ; which is the 
Golden Number for 1870. (See page 171.) 

As Easter always falls on one of the thirty-five days 
after the 21st of March, it is evident that there must be for 
every one of these days a certain number which shows the 
difference between March 21st and Easter day, or the num- 
ber of days which intervene between them. This number 
is called The Number of Direction ; because being added 
to the 21st of March it brings us to Easter day. In the 
following Table the Number of Direction for every year of 
the Lunar Cycle is placed in the angle that is formed by 



G OLDEN NUMBER. 



171 



Table showing the Golden Number fbom the beginning op the 
Christian Era to a. d. 4000. 













TEAKS 


LESS 


THAH A 


HUNDRED. 





















1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 8 


9 | 10 


11 


12 13 


14 


. 


16 17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 


25 


26 1 27 


28 


29 


30 


31 32 


33 


34 


35 36 


37 


HUTTDREDS i 
















! 





— 





— 


— 


— — 


— 


38 39 

OF YEAR3. 


40 


41 


42 


43 


44 


45 j 46 


47 48 


49 


50 51 


52 


53 


54 55 


56 


57 


58 


59 


60 


61 


62 


63 


64 


65 


66 


m 


6S 


69 70 


71 


72 


73 


74 


75 




76 


77 


78 


79 


80 


81 


82 


83 


84 


85 


86 


S7 


88 89 


90 


91 


92 


93 


94 


1 95 


96 


97 


98 


99 












n 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


IS 







1900 


8800 1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


19 



































— 


— 




— 


— 


— 


— 


— 


100 


2000 


3900 6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


IS 


19 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 































— 


— 


— 


— 


— 


— 




— 


200 


2100 


4000J 11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 19 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


» 


10 








! ' . 














— 


— 


— 


— 




— 




— 


300 


2200 




16 17 18 


19 


1 


2 3 i 4 5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


400 


2300 




2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


1 


500 


2400 




7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


Is" 


19 


1 


1 


3 


4 


5 


6 


600 


2500 




12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 j 18 


19 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 
- 


11 


700 


2600 




17 


18 


19 


1 


2 


3 4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


800 


2700 




3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


1 


2 


900 


2800 




8 


9 10 | 11 | 12 


13 14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


1000 


2930 




13 14 j 15 16 


17 


18 19 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


1100 


3000 




18 


19 1 1 | 2 


3 


4 1 5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


1516 


17 


1200 


3100 




4 


5 6 7 


8 


9 | 10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


« 


18 


19 


L 


3 


1300 


3200 




9 


10 


11 


12 


« 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 7 


8 


1400 


3300 




14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


1112 


13 


1500 


3400 




19 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 17 


18 


1600 


3500 




5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


1 


2 3 


4 


1700 


3600 




10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7| 8 


9 


1800 


3700 




15 


16 


17 


18 


19 




3 


4 


5 


6 


- 


8 


9 


10 


11 


1213 


14 



172 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

the vertical column from the line of the Golden Numbers 
at the head of the Table, and by the horizontal line from 
the column of the Dominical Letters at the side. So that 
with the Golden Number and Dominical Letter for the 
year we can easily find the Number of Direction ; which, 
added to the 21st of March, directs us to the day on which 
Easter falls in that year. For example : the Golden Num- 
ber for 1870 is IX and the Dominical Letter is B ; and 
under IX and parallel with B you find 27, which is the 
Number of Direction for the year ; and which, added to 
March 21st, brings us to April 17th, which is Easter day 
for 1870. (See page 175.) 

The Table here referred to is compiled from the Ex- 
panded Table of Epacts and the reformed Lunar Calendar. 
Take, for example, the first column ; or that under the 
Golden Number I, the Epact for which in the present cen- 
tury is *. This symbol in the Lunar Calendar is set oppo- 
site to the 31st of March, which brings the Paschal Term 
to April 13. Consequently the earliest day on which Easter 
can fall in years corresponding to the Golden Number One, 
is April 14th, the letter of which is F ; and as from March 
21st to April 14th are twenty-four days, 24 is set opposite 
to F, 25 to G, 26 to A, etc. ; showing that in years corre- 
sponding to the Golden Number I, Easter day is that day, 
from April 14th to April 20th, the letter for which is the 
Dominical Letter for the year. The rest of the Table is 
formed in like manner. 

Or you may proceed thus: Find the numbers for the 
first year of the cycle, and set them down as above directed. 
Then from the least of the numbers so found deduct 11, or 
if the number be less than 11 add 19, and you will have the 
least number for the next year of the cycle. Set this num- 
ber opposite to the Dominical Letter for the year which 



THE NUMBER OF DIRECTION, 173 

is always either the fourth or third from the Letter opposite 
to which stands the least number for the year of the pre- 
vious Cycle ; the fourth downward after deducting 11, and 
the third upward after adding 19, and making all the 
counts inclusive. 

This Table has been in use since 1752, when the New 
Style of the Calendar was legalized in Great Britain, and is 
commonly given as " A Table to find Easter day according 
" to the New Style." The title, however, is too general, 
since, strictly speaking, it is a Table to find Easter day 
from 1700 to 1899. If applied to the next century it fails, 
in eleven instances, viz., in the years 1902, 1906, 1926, 
1930, 1950, 1957, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1994, and 1997 ; in 
each instance giving Easter a week too early. For other 
years of the same century the Table holds good ; and the 
reason of its failing in the instances above mentioned is 
that in the next century the Epacts will be one less than 
in the present ; the Epact of the Golden Number I, for 
example, being not as now *, but 29 ; the consequence of 
which is that all those Easters which fall on the day next 
after the Paschal Term are a week later than they would 
be if the present adjustment of the Epacts to the Golden 
Numbers were continued. 

The Table, page 176, gives the Number of Direction to 
find Easter day for any year from 1900 to 2199. 

From what has been said, it appears that three points of 
time are to be considered in the Easter problem ; the one 
fixed and the two others variable. The fixed point is the 
day of the vernal equinox, March the 21st ; and of the 
two variable points, the first is the number of days varying 
from 1 to 28, which, added to March 21st, brings us to the 
Paschal Term ; and the second is the number which, added 
to the Paschal Term, brings us to Easter day, a number 



174 THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 

which varies from 1 to 6. These two together constitute 
the Number of Direction. The celebrated formula of the 
German mathematician, M. Gauss, effects the same result 
without direct reference to the Expanded Table of Epacts 
and the Lunar Calendar. It is founded on an intimate 
knowledge of the reformed Calendar, and aims by an ana- 
lysis of the data (the a, b, c, of the formula), authorized 
by the Calendar, to determine the variable quantities (the 
d and e of the formula), the sum of which added to the 
day next after the vernal equinox will give us Easter day 
for the year. This is clearly shown in the following ration- 
ale of the formula by my ingenious friend Mr. William 
Moore, which I take much pleasure in laying before the 
reader. The formula has been often published, but I am 
not aware that it has been before explained. Nor in fact 
has the formula itself, so far as I can find, ever before been 
correctly given ; the first published copy, apparently that 
of Delambre, having contained an error which has been 
perpetuated in subsequent reprints. The New Edinburgh 
Encyclopedia, article Chronology, pronounces the method 
" infallible," but the learned author of the article could 
hardly have tested the formula, as he has given it, by the 
Easters from 1582 to the end of the seventeenth century. 



TO FIND EASTER DAT, 



175 



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03 
















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176 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



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DEMONSTRATION 

OF THE 

FORMULA OF GAUSS FOR FINDING EASTER, 

IN A LETTER TO THE AUTHOR 

By WILLIAM MOORE, Esquiee. 



M¥-Dear Dr. Seabury : 

I avail myself with pleasure of the offer you kindly 
make me of a corner in your book for my demonstration of 
the formula of Gauss for finding Easter, as I think it may 
save some of your readers who, like myself, are reluctant to 
use a formula of which they do not know the rationale, 
much of that trouble which I myself found in puzzling out 
this beautiful but somewhat intricate formula. As I feel 
by no means sure, however, of being able to convey to other 
minds the clear idea of this matter which from much study 
of these subjects I have in my own, I leave this paper 
unreservedly at your discretion, either to give it a place in 
your forthcoming work, or to consign it quietly to the waste- 
basket. I have always had somewhat of the temper of 
those inquisitive children who pull to pieces an ingenious 
mechanical toy to find" out " why it goes," and when a boy 
gave a practical illustration of this in taking apart the first 
watch I owned, to learn its interior mechanism. In this 
spirit, when, some twenty odd years ago, I first saw this 
formula of Gauss, without any demonstration, in a number 
of the True Catholic (that for August, 1849), I could not 
rest till I had analyzed it and found out the reason why it 
did what it professed to do. An additional motive of this 
investigation was the exception to the rule which, as given 
12 



178 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

in the article in the True Catholic, and as I have since seen 
in Delambre's Astronomy also, I saw at once was too 
sweeping, as it would, if applied as there directed, make it 
impossible for Easter ever to fall on the 25th April, as it 
may, and often does, and I wished to find some correct rule 
for the application of the exception. The formula, as you 
know, is as follows : 

Divide the year by 19 and call the remainder a. 

Divide also by 4 and call the remainder b. 

Divide also by 7 and call the remainder c. 

Divide 19 a + M by 30 and call the remainder d. 

Divide 2b + 4c + 6d + Nby 7 and call the remainder e. 

Easter will be (22 + d + e) of March, or (d + e - 9) of 
April. 

This rule is general for the Julian Calendar, where 
M = 15 and N = 6, and are constant. For the Gregorian 
Calendar M and N require a correction, which may be 
found by the subjoined Table, which will suffice till the 
year 2500 : 

M. N. 

From 1582 till 1699 22 2 

1700 " 1799 23 3 

1800 " 1899 23 4 

1900 " 1999 24 5 

2000 " 2099 24 5 

2100 " 2199 24 6 

2200 " 2299 25 

2300 " 2399........ 26 1 

2400 « 2499 25. 1 

Exception. — If the calculation gives Easter 26th or 25th 
April, deduct seven days. 

Now if we select a year which is divisible by 19 and by 
28 without remainder, and consequently by the factors of 
28, 4 and 7, we eliminate the quantities a, b and c, which 
each become 0, and shall more easily see what are the con- 
stants M and N. Take, for instance, the year 2128 : a = ; 
b = ; c = ; and, the constants for the century being 



M 



THE FORMULA OF GAUSS. 179 



/M \R /fid -4- N\ R 

= 24, N = 6,d becomes (|jj = 24, and e ( ^ ) = 3, 



and Easter is (22 + 24 + 3) of March, or, which is the 
same thing (24+3 — 9), April = 18 April ; which we find 
correct by our tables, using that for 1900 to 2199, the 
Golden Number being I and the Sunday Letter C. We 
see that in this case a being 0, d becomes simply the con- 
stant M = 24. Now, bearing in mind the rule for finding 
the Golden Number, as given in our Prayer Book, it is 
manifest that a will always be one less than the Golden 
Number of the year, and in the above case a being 0, the 
Golden Number is I. Now, counting forward from 22d 
March 24 days = M, we arrive .at the 15th day of April, 
the day after the Paschal full moon designated by the 
Golden Number I, which in the aforesaid Table stands 
against the 14th April ; so that the 15th April is the 
earliest day on which Easter can fall on the first year of 
the Lunar Cycle. The constant M is therefore the number 
of days counted forward from the 22d March to the day 
following the Paschal full moon of the year I of the Lunar 
Cycle. 

Now since the Epacts increase each year by 11, if we 
count back eleven days from the Golden Number I, we 
come to the Golden Number II ; thence counting back 
eleven days, we come to the Golden Number III, and so on 
through the whole cycle of nineteen years. But it is the 
same thing whether we count back eleven days or count 
forward nineteen days, observing always to include in our 
count the lunar month of thirty days from 21st March to 

19th April, inclusive. So that I ^- J = d carries 

us forward from 22d March to the day following the Pas- 
chal full moon of the given year, which is the earliest day 
on which Easter can fall on years having that same Golden 
Number, the rest being dependent on the Sunday Letter. 
The remainder of the formula for 2128 we found to be 

/ = ) = 3. Now if we take some year which is 



180 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

divisible by 28, and where in addition d comes out any 
multiple of 7, we shall be better able to see what N is, and 
then learn the effect of 6d in this formula. Take for this 
purpose the year 1848 ; the Golden Number of which is 
VI, and the Sunday Letter A, as of all the years in that 
century divisible without remainder by 28. The constants 
are 23 and 4. 

For that year, therefore, 

a = 5;b = 0;c = 0;d= (^ ^J- J = 28. 

Now d = 28, being divisible without remainder by 7, e is 
reduced simply to the constant N = 4, and Easter is 
(22 + 28 + 4) March, or 23d April. 

Bearing in mind now that the year is one divisible by 28 
without remainder, N is shown to be the number counted 
from the Sunday Letter D, from which we began to count 
at 22d March, and at which, consequently, any number of 
even weeks must end, to the Sunday Letter of those years 
in any given century which are divisible without remainder 
by 28. But since d is not always a number of even weeks, 
and does not consequently always terminate on Sunday 
Letter D, and since N must begin to count from the Sun- 
day Letter D, something must be included in the value" of 
e which will supplement the value of d and make with it a 
number of even weeks ; and this is done by including 6d in 
the composition of e, which with d we had before =: 7d or 
d weeks ; the final division by 7 throwing out any surplus 
weeks and leaving a remainder less than one week. In fact, 
practically, in using this formula instead of 6d, I simply 
add in the composition of e a number which with d makes 
an even multiple of 7, which might be expressed thus 
(7 n — d), n being any number that makes the expression 
positive. 

So far as we have yet gone, we could only find Easter 
from our formula for those years which are. divisible by 4 
and by 7 without any remainder. Let us now examine the 
effect of b and c, where the division by 4 and 7 leave 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE REMAINDERS. 181 

remainders. Beginning with a year in which both are 0. 
we have the series of remainders as follows, viz. : 



' B. B. 


B. 


B. 


= 01230 


12 3 


12 3 0, etc. 


= 01234 


5 6 1 


2 3 4 5, etc. 



(2 b + 4 c) = 6 12 18 16 22 28 6 4 10 16 22 20, and 

.9 b + 4 o\ R 

/ ^ j =06 542 106432 16. 

Now we see that the remainders after the division by 7 
diminish regularly by 1 till we come to in the column B, 
which are bissextile years when they diminish by 2. No 
interruption in this regular series of remainders occurs when 
c becomes 0, because the amount dropped is only an even 
number of sevens. If, therefore, we begin with the Sunday 
Letter of any year divisible by 28, we get those of the 
remaining years of the Cycle in reverse order, passing over 
one letter in ordinary and two in bissextile years, as it 
should be. Suppose the first letter to be A, six brings us 
to G ; five to F ; four to E ; the next year is bissextile, 
and two brings us to C, and so on. The remainders, there- 
fore, of (2 b + 4 c) divided by 7 bring us from the Sunday 
Letter of the years divisible by 28 without remainder, to 
that of the given year, whatever may be its place in the 
Cycle. 

The first part of the formula ( ~i — J = d is con- 
trolled by the Golden Number, or the place of the year in 
the Lunar Cycle of nineteen years, and brings us to the 
earliest day on which Easter can happen on years having 
that Golden Number. 

The second part of the formula - 

is governed by the Sunday Letter of the year, or its place 
in the Solar Cycle of twenty-eight years ; the remainder 
after the division by seven of six d, makes with the d we 
had before even weeks, and brings us to the Sunday Letter 



182 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

D, from which we begin to count. Standing, as it does, 

against 22d March, N conducts thence to the Sunday 

Letter of the years in the given century which are divisible 

by 28 without remainder, and then the remainder, after 

2 b + 4c 
division of = , brings us to the Sunday Letter of the 

given year, which is Easter day. 

This rule is subject to some exceptions, but, as I have 
already remarked, the rule given for these exceptional cases 
is much too broadly stated in the works named in the 
former part of this letter. This irregularity in the result 
given by the formula is owing to the double Epacts xxiv 
and xxv opposite the 5th April in the Eoman Calendar 
which mark the new moons, to which our Golden Numbers 
which point to the full moons were made to conform, and 
which, in some centuries, cause them to be crowded on the 
17th and 18th April, when, if the lunation was a full one 
of thirty days, they would have stood opposite to the 18th 
and 19th. This only occurs in those centuries in which the 
series of Epacts in use embraces both those Epacts xxiv 
and xxv. 

The rule for the application of the exceptions may be 
thus given : 

1st. When the formula gives d + e = 35, and Easter 
consequently 26th April, seven days must be deducted, and 
Easter will fall on the 19th April. This case can only 
occur when the Epact is xxiv and the Sunday Letter D, 
and in the next three centuries will only occur three times, 
viz., on 1981, 2076, and 2133. 

2d. When the formula gives (d + e) = 34, and conse- 
quently Easter 25th April, the exception does not apply 
universally, and the rule for its application cannot be so 
simply stated. The following rule will, however, suffice 
for more than two thousand six hundred years. 

If the given year in this case is 

between 1900 and 2199, ) , 

or 3100 and 3399, ^ f, greater 
or 3800 and 4099, S ' 



THE EXCEPTIONS OF THE FORMULA. 183 

deduct seven days and Easter will fall on the 18th April. 
If both the above conditions are not fulfilled, the formula 
gives the correct result 25th April. In the present century 
there is but one year in which the formula gives Easter 
25th April, viz., 1886 : a is 5, and neither of the conditions 
being fulfilled, the result is correct. During the next three 
hundred years, being the first of the above named periods 
from 1900 to 2199, there are six years in which the formula 
gives Easter 25th April ; in three of which the result is 
correct, a being 5. The years are 1943, 2038, and 2190. 
In the other three years a is 16, and being greater than 

10, both conditions are complied with, and the exception 
applies. These years are 1954, 2049, and 2106. In the 
second of the above named periods, viz., that from 3100 to 
3399, there are also six cases in which the formula gives 
Easter 25th April, in three of which the result is correct, 
a being 0, viz., 3154, 3249, and 3306. In the other three 
the exception applies, viz., in 3165, 3260, and 3317, a being 

11, and both conditions fulfilled. During the last of the 
above named periods, that from 3800 to 4099, only three 
cases occur in which the formula gives 25th April, and as 
in each a — 14, the exception applies ; the years are 3852, 
3909, and 4004. 

After 4099 there is an interval of four hundred years, 
during which the exception will not apply ; so that so far 
from the exception being universal when the formula gives 
25 April, as stated by Delambre, it only applies in nine 
instances in the long period of more than two thousand 
nine hundred years from the Gregorian reformation in 1582 
to 4499. 

At the risk of making this letter unreasonably long, I 
will now venture to make a few remarks on the constants 
M and N, which, as they have no direct bearing on the 
demonstration of the formula, I have postponed till now, 
in order not to interrupt unnecessarily the thread of my 
argument. 

M has been shown to be the distance counted from 22d 
March to the day following the Paschal full moon in the 



184 TEE CEURCE CALENDAR, 

first year of the Lunar Cycle. In the Nicene Calendar, the 
Golden Number I, which marks the new moon of that year, 
stands against the 23d March, and the Paschal full moon 
fills consequently on the 5th April, the day after which, or 
earliest Easter, is the fifteenth day counted from 22d March. 
M, therefore, in that Calendar still' used by the Eastern 
Church, is = 15, and is constant, because there is no pro- 
vision in that Calendar as there is in the reformed Calendar 
for the gradual shifting forward of the Golden Numbers. 
The change in the place of the Golden Numbers at the 
time of the Gregorian reformation of the Calendar was ren- 
dered necessary by the difference between nineteen tropical 
years and two hundred and thirty-five lunations, which, in 
the Nicene Calendar, are assumed to be equal. This differ- 
ence, which, in one lunar cycle of nineteen years, amounts 
to two hours and three and a half minutes, had accumu- 
lated in the one thousand two hundred and fifty-seven years 
that had elapsed since the time of the Council of Nice to 
something over five and two-thirds days. The actual ad- 
vance made was seven days, the new moon of that year, 
which was the sixth year of the Lunar Cycle, which would 
by the old Calendar have fallen on the 28th March, being 
made in the new to fall on the 4th April ; the reason for 
which may have been to make the Golden Number I and 
the Epact i coincide in that first year of the new Calendar, 
or they may have found that a new moon actually occurred 
on the 4th April of that year.* M may be found for the 
Gregorian Calendar for any century by adding to 22 the 
number found opposite to that century in column 3 of 
Table II of the General Tables in our Prayer Book, deduct- 
ing 30 if it exceeds that sum. 

We found N to be the distance counted from D to the 
Sunday Letter of those years in any given century which 
are divisible by 28 without any remainder. In the Nicene 
Calendar it is 6, because in that Calendar the Sunday Let- 
ters recur regularly after twenty-eight years without any 
interruption, and the Sunday Letter of all years divisible 
by 28 without remainder is C, which is the sixth, counting 

* See note at the end, page 222. 



THE- CONSTANTS OF THE FORMULA. 185 

down from D. In the Gregorian Calendar the regular suc- 
cession of Sunday Letters is interrupted on the recurrence 
of those centurial years which are not bissextile, and N 
consequently runs through a series of changes from to 6. 
It may be found for any century for the Gregorian Calendar 
by adding 6 to the difference between the Old and New 
Style and dividing by 7. Take this century, for instance ; 
the difference between Old and New Style is now 12, and 

— = — remainder is 4, which is N for this century. Or it 

may be found thus : Seek in Table I of the General Tables 
in our Prayer Book the century for which it is required, 
and at the head of the column you find the Sunday Letter 
of those years in that century which are divisible by 28 
without remainder. N will be the distance counted forward 
from D to that letter. By applying either of these rules 
for finding N for 1582 to 1699, you will find it was 2 and 
not 3, as given in Delambre and in the True Catholic. I 
have given it correctly in the Table in this paper. 

And now, with sincere apology for taking up so much of 
your valuable space if you decide to give this to the public, 
I remain, Kev. and very dear Sir, 

Your obedient servant, 

William Moore. 

Woodlawn, October, 1871. 

Mr. Moore has also called my attention to a fact which 
puts in a striking light the beauty and utility of Gauss's 
formula ; and that is, the facility which it affords for cal- 
culating any number of consecutive Easters for one or more 
lunar cycles, or, if need be, for a century. For, when the 
Easter for the first year of a cycle is calculated by the for- 
mula, the other elements follow in such regular sequence 
that they can be written down without calculation. In the 
following Table, for example, containing the Cycle which 
has just been added to our Prayer Book, the calculation of 
the several Easters, after the first is determined, becomes, 



186 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



by Mr. Moore's application of the Gaussian method, the 
work of only a few minutes : 



1881. 

1882. 
18S3. 
1884. 
1885. 
183G. 
1887. 
1838. 
1839. 
1890. 
1891. 
1892. 
1893. 
1894. 
1895. 
1896. 
1897. 
1898. 
1899. 



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A 


12 


2 


4 


6 


in 


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2 


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9 


5 





5 


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C 


28 





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8 


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xvrn 


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4 


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or 22+d+< 

EASTER. 



17 April. 
9 " 
25 March. 

13 April. 

5 " 
25 " 
10 " 

1 " 
21 " 

6 " 

29 March. 

17 April. 

2 " 

25 March. 

14 April. 
5 " 

18 " 
10 " 

2 " 



The three first columns need no remark. The fourth is 

d of G-auss, commencing the series with the constant M, 

and continued by adding 19 or deducting 11. The fifth 

column makes with cl the next higher multiple of 7. The 

. 12 b + 4 c + N\ R 
sixth column 



,(, 



-) , calculated for one year 



and deduced for the others by deducting one for common 
and two for leap-years. These two columns added together 
(and deducting 7 when they equal or exceed that amount) 
become e of Gauss's method and form the seventh column ; 
and d 4- c added to March 22d brings us to Easter day, as 
given in the last column. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Reasons for the reformation of the Calendar in Great Britain — The 
reform inaugurated by the 24th of George the Second — Preamble to 
the Act — Analysis of the Act — Appendix to the Act — Rejection of the 
Lunar Calendar — Adherence to the use of the Golden Numbers for 
finding Easter. 

THE New Style of the Calendar, having been inaugu- 
rated by Gregory XIII, A. D. 1582, was at once 
adopted in Spain, Portugal, and part of Italy, in which 
countries ten nominal days were deducted from the Calen- 
dar, by calling what, according to the Old Style of the 
Calendar, had been the 5th of October, the 15th of Octo- 
ber, 1582. In France the same change was made in the 
same year by order of Henry the Third, when it was 
decreed that the day which had been the 10th of December 
should be held and accounted to be the 20th of December, 
1582. In Holland, Brabant, and Flanders, it was decreed 
that the 15th of December, 1582, should be accounted the 
25th of December, 1582, and be celebrated as Christmas 
day. In Lorraine the 10th of December, 1582, of the Old 
Style, was taken to be the 20th of December, 1582. In 
Germany, Denmark, Poland and Hungary, the Gregorian 
Calendar was adopted in the years respectively of 1582, 
1586, and 1587, and in Germany also by the subjects of the 
Koman obedience in 1584. In Germany, however, the Pro- 
testant part of the Empire adhered to the Old Style of the 
Calendar until 1699, when they adopted a new Calendar, 
that of Weigel, which differed from the Gregorian Calendar; 
determining Easter and the moveable feasts by astronomical 
science and not by the cycles. The Calendar of Weigel was 



Lbb THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

at the same time ordered to be used in Denmark ; since which 
time the Style of Denmark agrees with that of the Pro- 
testants of Germany ; the difference, however, of Weigel's 
Calendar from the Gregorian leading in some years to the 
observance of Easter on a different day. 

In this state of things in the year 1751, or about one 
hundred and seventy years after the reform had been 
effected by the Church of Kome, and after all the nations 
of Europe except Sweden and Russia (Sweden followed in 
1753) had preceded her, the Parliament of Great Britain 
adopted the same reform. The reform, indeed, had become 
a measure of necessity, so cogent were the reasons — social, 
commercial, and ecclesiastical — which demanded it. Great 
confusion had for a long time prevailed as to the beginning 
of the year ; the people being divided between the use of 
the historical year which began on the 1st of January and 
the civil ecclesiastical and legal year, the beginning of 
which had for more than four hundred years ' been assigned 
to the 25th of March. The same events, if they happened 
between the 1st of January and the 25th of March, were 
assigned by some writers to one year and by others to the 
year following ; both being equally correct, the one refer- 
ring to the historical, and the other to the civil or legal 
year which was used in the execution of conveyances and 
all public instruments. Hence it became, and still is, cus- 
tomary, for the sake of precision, to annex the historical 
year to the legal year. " Bentley," says Bishop Monk, in 
his very entertaining and instructive life of the great critic, 

n-i 

" was born on the 27th of January, 1661-62," * or ^ ; 

* An example will illustrate this distinction, an inattention to which 
has been a fruitful source of error. The doctrine of the Sacrifice of the 
Mass was decreed by the Council of Trent at its -twenty-second session 
on the 17th of September, 1562 (Brent's Father Paul, p. 572) ; and the 



THE 24.TH OF GEORGE II. 189 

where the first date denotes the civil or legal year, and the 
date annexed, 1662, denotes the historical year. Imagine, 
too, the perplexities and embarrassments occasioned to 
merchants and others having constant business in foreign 
countries by following a standard of time eleven clays dif- 
ferent from that of their correspondents ! In a commercial 
country difficulties of this sort had probably more to do in 
bringing about the reform than perplexities in regard to 
the celebration of Easter, partly perhaps because they fell 
upon those who had less patience to bear them. 

The act by which the use of the reformed Calendar was 
received and established in Great Britain and her depen- 
dencies was passed in the 24th year of George the Second, 
A. D. 1751. In Pickering's " Statutes at Large/' it forms 
the 23d chapter of that year, and is contained in volume 
20th, pages 186-211. The Preamble, which discloses the 
motives of the Legislature and the reasons which rendered 
the reform necessary, is as follows : " Whereas the legal 
" supputation of the year of our Lord in that part of Great 

Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England were agreed upon and 
subscribed by the Archbishops and Bishops of the Provinces of Canter- 
bury and York in Convocation on the 29th of January, 1562. A superfi- 
cial comparison of the dates gives a plausible air to the suggestion that 
was astutely thrown out some thirty years ago, and has since been fre- 
quently repeated, that the XXVIIIth Article was not intended as a 
protest against the Trent decree, but was levelled at certain crude and 
unauthorized opinions current in that age. But the facts are that the 
Council of Trent followed the computation which then prevailed in 
Italy, and was afterwards made obligatory by the reformed Calendar, 
according to which the year began on the 1st of January ; while the 
Articles bear on their face that they were adopted in January, 1562 — 
" Secundum computationem Ecclesiee Anglican® " (Sparrow's Collection, 
page 207) — and it is certain that according to the computation of the 
Anglican Church, the year then began on March the 25th, and that con- 
sequently the Articles were adopted in the January following the Sep- 
tember in which the Tridentine doctrine was defined. The proper date 
is January 29th, 1562-63 ; that is, January 29th, 1563, according to the 
computation now in use. 



190 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

" Britain called England, according to which the year 
" beginneth on the 25th day of March, hath been found by 
" experience to be attended with divers inconveniences, not 
" only as it differs from the usage of neighbouring nations, 
"but also from Scotland, and from the common usage 
" throughout the whole kingdom, and thereby frequent 
" mistakes are occasioned in the dates of deeds, and other 
" writings, and disputes arise therefrom ; and whereas the 
" Calendar now in use throughout all his Majesty's British 
" dominions, commonly called The Julian Calendar, hath 
" been discovered to be erroneous, by means whereof the 
" vernal or spring equinox, which at the time of the General 
" Council of Nice, in the year of our Lord three hundred 
" and twenty-five, happened on or about the twenty-first 
" day of March, now happens on the ninth or tenth day of 
" the same month ; and the said error is still increasing, 
" and if not remedied, would, in process of time, occasion 
" the several equinoxes and solstices to fall at very different 
" times in the civil year from what they formerly did, 
" which might tend to mislead persons ignorant of the said 
" alteration ; and whereas a method of correcting the Cal- 
" endar in such manner as that the equinoxes and solstices 
" may for the future fall nearly on the same nominal days 
" on which the same happened at the time of the said 
" General Council, hath been received and established, and 
" is now generally practised by almost all other nations of 
" Europe ; and whereas it will be of general convenience to- 
"'merchants, and other persons corresponding with other 
" nations and countries, and tend to prevent mistakes and 
" disputes in or concerning the dates of letters, and ac- 
" counts, if the like correction be received and established 
" in his Majesty's dominions ; may it therefore please your 
" Majesty," etc. 



ANALYSIS OF THE ACT. 191 

The act consists of six sections. The first section enacts 
that throughout all his Majesty's dominions in Europe, 
Asia, Africa, and America, after the last day of December, 

1751, the 25th of March shall not be reckoned as the 
beginning of the year, and that the first day of January 
next following shall be reckoned as the first day of 1752, 
and so in all future years. 

The same section further provides that Easter and the 
moveable feasts depending on it shall, after January 1st, 

1752, and until September 2d, 1752, be ascertained as here- 
tofore ; that the day next following the 2d of September 
shall be called and reckoned as the fourteenth day of Sep- 
tember, omitting the eleven nominal intermediate days of 
the Calendar, and that all public and private proceedings 
whatsoever, after the 1st of January, 1752, should be dated 
accordingly. 

The second section provides for the continuing and pre- 
serving the Calendar or method of reckoning and comput- 
ing the days of the year in the same regular course, as near 
as may be, in all times coming, and further enacts, by the 
authority aforesaid, that the several years of our Lord, 
one thousand eight hundred, one thousand nine hundred, 
two thousand one hundred, two thousand two hundred, 
two thousand three hundred, or any other hundredth years 
of our Lord, which shall happen in time to come, except 
only every fourth hundreth year of our Lord, whereof the 
year of our Lord two thousand shall be the first, shall not 
be esteemed or taken to be bissextile or leap-years, but 
shall be taken to be common years, consisting of three hun- 
dred and sixty-five days, and no more ; and that the years 
of our Lord two thousand, two thousand four hundred, two 
thousand eight hundred, and every other fourth hundredth 
year of our Lord, from the said year of our Lord two thou- 



192 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

sand, inclusive, and also all other years of our Lord, which, 
by the present supputation, are esteemed to be bissextile or 
leap-years, shall for the future, and in all times to come, be 
esteemed and taken to be bissextile or leap-years, consisting 
of three hundred and sixty-six days, in the same sort and 
manner as is now used with respect to every fourth year of 
our Lord. 

The third section having premised that the method of 
ascertaining Easter, heretofore used in the Church of Eng- 
land, had become considerably erroneous, enacts that the 
said method should be discontinued, and that from and 
after the 2d of September, 1752, Easter day and the other 
moveable and other feasts should be reckoned according to 
the Calendar, Tables, aud Kules annexed to the act. 

The fourth section of the act requires that Courts of 
Session and Exchequer in Scotland, and markets, fairs, and 
marts be held upon the same natural days as heretofore. 

The fifth and* sixth sections contain minor regulations 
rendered necessary to avoid the uncertainty and embarrass- 
ments which, if not guarded against, would be consequent 
in business transactions on the proposed change ; such, for 
example, as the opening and closing of commons, payment 
of rents, etc., commencement or expiration of leases, etc., 
the attainment of the age of majority by minors, the expi- 
ration of apprenticeships, etc. 

" The new Calendar, Tables, and Kules, mentioned and 
" referred to in the act for regulating the commencement 
" of the year, and for correcting the Calendar now in use," 
forms an appendix to the foregoing act, and is the same as 
the Calendar since given in the English Prayer Books. 

Thus the Georgian reformers proclaimed to the world 
their purpose to inaugurate in Great Britain and in the 
Church of England the New Style of the Calendar, and the 






CHANGE IN THE LUNAR CALENDAR. 193 

Prayer Book, since 1752, gives us the results of their labour. 
Let us briefly examine these results. 

In the first place, we find that the whole Lunar Calendar, 
which had been held sacred in the English Church for a 
thousand years, was, with the exception of a comparatively 
small part of it, obliterated at a stroke. The Paschal 
Feast, which can only be adjusted by reference to the 
annual course of the moon, was wrested from its connexion 
and made to stand alone ; as if the Church, wearied of 
God's own ordinance for the regulation of her annual 
solemnities, would choose some strange light which should 
shine like the dog-star, but for one month in the year. 
But of what use is the rest of the Lunar Calendar, pro- 
vided the part which relates to Easter is preserved ? As if 
any cord, or any fibre of a cord, by which the Church inno- 
cently binds to herself the thoughts and affections of her 
children could be rudely snapped without in some way 
weakening her hold on them ! Time was when the owner 
of the soil and his tenants ; when the farmer, the artisan, 
men of all classes, whether toiling apart from the world or 
moving in its busy throng, used to consult the Calendar to 
learn from month to month the changes of the moon ; and 
learning from their Prayer Book, were they less likely to 
receive and apply their knowledge in the fear of God ? less 
apt to see in the luminary set over them to lighten the 
darkness of the night, an emblem of that Church, " the 
" blessed company of all faithful people," which God has 
set in this world of error and sin to reflect on it the rays 
of the " Sun of Bighteousness ? " But I have no wish to 
argue the point. I wish merely to say, in passing, that it 
has never been the Church's wont to measure her aims by 
the world's standard of utility ; nor can I refrain from add- 
ing what I believe to be true, that in no other age of the 
13 



194 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

English Church, whether "before or since her reformation 
from Popery, could the heirloom of a thousand years be 
torn from her without a protest on the part of some at 
least of her clergy. 

Having resolved, however, to adopt the Gregorian reform, 
and at the same time to shut out of sight the Lunar Cal- 
endar, except so far as it had a direct bearing upon Easter, 
one might naturally have expected that the Parliament 
would give us that portion of the reformed Lunar Calendar 
which does bear directly upon Easter. In which case our 
Prayer Book for March and April would now stand as fol- 
lows ; where the Paschal Term, being set opposite to every 
day of March and April on which it can possibly fall, ena- 
bles us (with the knowledge of the Golden Number, the 
Epact and Sunday Letter for the year) to find Easter for- 
ever. (See page 195.) 

Instead, however, of this luminous and unchangeable 
method for finding Easter, our Prayer Book, under the 
months of March and April, gives us the Golden Numbers 
for each year set opposite to the Paschal Term for that 
year, together with the following explanatory note : " The 
" Numbers prefixed to the several days (in the foregoing 
" Calendar), between the 21st of March and the 18th day 
" of April, both inclusive, denote the days upon which 
" those full moons do fall, which happen upon or next after 
" the 21st day of March, in those years, of which they are 
" respectively the Golden Numbers ; and the Sunday Let- 
" ter next following any such full moon points out Easter 
" day for that year. All which holds until the year of our 
" Lord 1899, inclusive ; after which year the place of these 
" Golden Numbers will be to be changed, as is hereafter 
" expressed." 

To see the significancy of this note, it is necessary to 



DOMINICAL TABLE. 



195 





MARCH. 






APRIL. 




DATS OF 
THE MONTH. 


DOMINIC'L 
LETTERS. 


EPACTS. 


PASCHAL 
TERM. 


DATS OF 
THE MONTH. 


dominic'l 

LETTERS. 


EPACTS. 


pasch'l 

TERM. 


1 


D 


* 


1 


G 


xxix 


Apr. 14 






2 


E 


xxix 




2 


A 


xxviii 


15 








3 


F 


xxviii 




3 


B 


xxvii 


16 








4 


G 


xxvii 




4 


c 


25, xxvi 


17 








5 


A 


xxvi 




5 


D 


xxv,xxiv 


18 








6 


B 


25, xxv 




6 


E 


xxiii 










7 


C 


xxiv 




7 


F 


xxii 










g 


D 


xxiii 


Mar. 21 


8 


G 


xxi 










9 


E 


xxii 


22 


9 


A 


XX 










10 


F 


xxi 


23 


10 


B 


xix 










11 


G 


XX 


24 


11 


C 


xviii 










12 


A 


xix 


25 


12 


D 


xvii 










13 


B 


xviii 


26 


13 


E 


xvi 










14.. 


C 


xvii 


27 


14 


F 


XV 










15 


D 


xvi 


28 
29 


15 


G 


xiv 










16 


E 


XV 


16 


A 


xiii 










17 


F 


xiv 


30 


17 


B 


xii 










18 


G 


xiii 


31 


18 


C 


xi 










19 


A 


xii 


April 1 
2 


19 


D 


X 










20 


B 


xi 


20 


E 


ix 










21 


C 


X 


3 


21 


F 


viii 










22 


D 


ix 


4 
5 


22 


G 


vii 










23 


E 


viii 


23 


A 


vi 










24 . 


F 


vii 


6 


24 


B 


v 










25 


G 


vi 


7 


25 


C 


iv 










26 


A 


V 


8 
9 


26 


D 


iii 










27 


B 


iv 


27 


E 


ii 










28 


C 


iii 


10 


28 


F 


i 










29 


D 


ii 


11 


29 


G 


* 










30 


E 


i 


12 


30... 


A 


xxix 










31 


F 


* 


13 















196 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

compare the reformed English Calendar on this point, very 
briefly, with the unreformed. 

If the reader, then, will turn to the Calendar (pages 131- 
148) as it stood in the Prayer Book before 1752, he will 
find that the Golden Numbers are set opposite to the days 
of the New Moon, and not as now, in the months of March 
and April, opposite to the Paschal Term. He will also 
find that the new moons which are now assigned to one 
year, or Golden Number, were before 1752 assigned to a 
different year or a different Golden Number. For example : 
the Golden Number XIV, in our present Prayer Books, 
points to the 21st of March as the Paschal Term, the new 
moon falling in the same year on the 8th of March. But 
in the Calendar as it stood before 1752, the Golden Number 
XIV is set opposite to the 30th of March, which brings 
the Paschal Term to the 12th of April ; while opposite to 
the 8th of March is, not XIV, but XVI. The reason is 
that the Calendar before 1752 gave the Golden Numbers 
as they were adjusted to the Epacts soon after the Council 
of Nice ; while the Prayer Book since 1752 gives the Golden 
Numbers as readjusted by the Gregorian reformers. Let 
the reader refer to the Expanded Table of Epacts (p. 194), 
and he will find that in the line P, which represents the 
Epacts as they corresponded to the Golden Numbers at the 
time of the Council of Nice, the Epact xxiii falls under the 
sixteenth year of the Cycle. But when the error in the use 
of the Lunar Cycle was corrected, and the Epacts were 
accurately adjusted forever to the solar time, it appeared 
that, from the year 1700 to the year 1899, xxiii would be 
the Epact, not as in the fourth century for the sixteenth, 
but for the fourteenth year of the Cycle ; whence in the 
Expanded Table, in the line C, which is in use from 1700 
to 1899, the Epact for the year, xxiii, is found under the 



PECULIARITY OF THE GREGORIAN REFORM. 197 

Golden Number XIV. So that what the Act of George II 
did, in the note under consideration, was simply to adjust 
the Epacts to the Golden Numbers after the pattern of the 
Gregorian reformers from the year 1700 to the year 1899 ; 
and to promise us, at the end of their note, a fresh instal- 
ment of the Gregorian readjustment which would come in 
play in the year 1900. 

Now, if the reader will turn to the reformed Lunar Cal- 
endar, he will find that the Epact for the 8th of March is 
23 ; the meaning of which is that whenever 23 is the Epact 
for the year, the 8th of March is the day of the Paschal 
new moon ; and that consequently the Paschal Term for 
the same year is the 21st of March. In the course of cen- 
turies (adhering to the Anglican scheme), the Golden 
Numbers must be shifted until every one of them comes in 
turn to be set opposite to the 21st of March ; while for all 
time, whatever be the Golden Number for the year, the 
Epact 23 stands unchangeably in the Gregorian Calendar 
opposite to the 8th of March ; showing that when 23 is the 
Epact for the year, be it now or a thousand years hence, 
the 21st of March is for that year the Paschal Term : so 
with the other Epacts respectively from March 8th to April 
18th. Now the distinctive feature of the Gregorian reform 
is the substitution of the system of Epacts for finding 
Easter in the place of the Golden Numbers as used in the 
Old Style of the Calendar. To say that the Anglicans 
have adopted the Gregorian reform is only to say, in other 
words, that they have adopted the Gregorian Epacts ; and 
if they followed the Gregorian Epacts for finding Easter 
themselves, why not insert the Epacts in their Calendar for 
enabling the people to find Easter ? Why direct us to 
Easter by the Golden Numbers, with complicated tables 
for changing them, century after century, instead of direct- 



198 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

ing us to find Easter by means of the simple and immutable 
system of Epacts ? 

" The Church of England/' says Dr. Jarvis, in his pro- 
foundly learned " Introduction to the History of the 
" Church/' " did not adopt the Gregorian Calendar, but 
" continued to use that of the ancient Church. The only 
" difference made was to adjust that Calendar to the 
" modern retrenchment/' This view I would gladly adopt, 
if I could ; but it seems to me more in accordance with 
facts to say that both the Church of Home and the Church 
of England continue to us - the old Church Calendar ; that 
to the Church of Kome exclusively belongs the credit of 
reforming that Calendar, the distinctive feature of the 
reform consisting in the removal of the Golden Numbers 
from the Lunar Calendar and substituting the Epacts in 
their place ; and that the Church of England, under the 
direction of Parliament, adopted the Koman reform, only 
keeping the Epacts out of sight and continuing to use the 
Golden Numbers (in that part of the Lunar Calendar 
which she retained) to indicate the age of the Paschal 
Moon until the end of the present century ; providing also 
Tables for shifting them hereafter as occasion might require. 
Whether Parliament were induced to pursue this course 
because the Epacts were regarded in that age as a symbol 
of popery, and the obtrusion of them might provoke the 
cry, " Give us back our Golden Numbers ! " — as another 
part of the reform had provoked the cry, " Give us back 
" our eleven days ! " — or from some other and more lauda- 
ble motive, I am unable to discover. One advantage, how- 
ever, it must be admitted that our present Church Calendar 
possesses ; which is, that the Golden Numbers are placed 
opposite to the Paschal Terms, and not, as formerly, oppo- 
site to the new moons. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Review of the Tables in the Prayer Book for finding Easter — Mode of 
constructing the first Tablj— The Table from 1900 to 2199— Rule for 
finding the Dominical Letter to be substituted for the present rule — 
The Table to be provided for the year 2200, etc. — Reasons for the 
change and for the construction of the new Table — The General 
Tables II and III. 

HAVING thus referred to the principle on which the 
trainers of the 24th of George II constructed the 
Appendix to which our present Church Calendar owes its 
reform, I go now to examine briefly the " Tables for finding 
" Easter/' present and prospective, special and general, 
which form the distinctive feature of the Calendar in the 
Anglican and American Prayer Book. 

The first Table is entitled, " A Table to find Easter-day 
" from the present time till the year 1899, inclusive." 

Next comes, "Another Table to find Easter from the 
present time until the year 1899, inclusive." 

And here let us note the precision of the language " till 
" the year 1899, inclusive," and not until the end of the cen- 
tury. For in the natural computation of time the century 
ends, not at the beginning, but at the expiration of the year 
1900. The Gregorian reformers, however, on readjusting 
the Epacts to the Golden Numbers, found it convenient to 
begin the lines of Epacts for different centuries with the 
centurial years. For example, the line D (compare the 
Table of Expanded Epacts, pp. 132, 133, and the Table of 
Equations, etc., page 149), which came first into use after 
the reformation, begins with the year 1500 and ends with 
1699 ; the line C begins with the year 1700 and ends with 
1899 ; and the line B begins with 1900 and ends with the 
year 2199, the years named being always inclusive. So 



200 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



that the expression in the Table is accurate, however other- 
wise it may seem to those who are conversant only with 
historical divisions of time. 

The first Table simply reproduces, in an expanded form, 
the marginal direction for the months of March and April, 
and the explanatory note connected with it. It may be 
well, however, to explain the process by which the Table is 
constructed, whence it will be seen that the Statute of George 
II, though it makes no mention of the Gregorian Calendar 
either in the preamble or in the act itself, has merely given 
the results of that Calendar, and set forth Tables which 
would have been as useless as they are perplexing, had the 
statute either adopted the reformed Lunar Calendar entire, 
or only that portion of it which extends from March 8th to 
April 25th, inclusive. The Table is as follows : 
A Table to find Easter Day from the Present Time till the 

YEAR 1899, INCLUSIVE. 



Golden 


Days of iho 


Sunday 


Numbers. 


month. 


Letters. 


XIV 


Mar. 21 


C 


ni 


22 


D 




23 


E 


XL 


24 


F 




25 


G 


XIX 


26 


A 


vni 


27 


B 




28 


C 


XVI 


29 


D 


V 


30 


E 




31 


F 


xni 


April 1 


G 


ii 


2 


A 




3 


B 


X 


4 


C 




5 


D 


XVIII 


6 


E 


VII 


7 


F 




8 


G 


XV 


9 


A 


rv 


10 


B 




11 


C 


xn 


12 


D 


i 


13 


E 




14 


F 


IX 


15 


G 




16 


A 


xvn 


17 


B 


VI 


18 


C 




19 


D 




20 


E 




21 


F 




22 


G 




23 


A 




24 


B 




25 


C 



HP HIS Table contains so much of the Calendar as is ne- 
■*■ cessary for the determining of Easter ; to find which, 
look for the Golden Number of the year in the first column 
of the Table, against which stands the day of the Paschal 
Full Moon ; then look in the third column for the Sunday 
Letter next after the day of the Full Moon ; and the day of 
the month standing against that Sunday Letter is Easter 
Day. If the Full Moon happen upon a Sunday, then (ac- 
cording to the first rule) the next Sunday after is Easter 
Day. 

To find the Golden Number, or Prime, add 1 to the year 
of our Lord, and then divide by 19 ; the remainder, if any, 
is the Golden Number ; but if nothing remain, then 19 is 
the Golden Number. 

To find the Dominical or Sunday Letter, according to the 
Calendar, until the year 1899, inclusive, add to 
the year of our Lord its fourth part, omitting 
fractions, divide the sum by 7, and if there be 
no remainder, then A is the Sunday Letter; 
but if any number remain, then the Letter 
standing against that number in the small an- 
nexed Table is the Sunday Letter. 

Note, That in all Bissextile or Leap Years, the Letter 
found as above will be the Sunday Letter from the interca- 
lated day exclusive to the end of the year. 






A 


1 


G 


2 


F 


3 


E 


4 


D 


5 


c 


6 


B 



TABLE FOR FINDING EASTER, 



201 



MODE OF CONSTKUCTION. 

First, for convenience sake, make a schedule of the cor- 
respondence between the Golden Numbers and the Epacts 
from 1700 to 1899. Thus : 



Golden Numbers. 


Epacts. 


Golden Numbers. 


Epacts. 


I 


38 
11 

22 

3 

14 

25 
6 

17 

28 

9 


XI 


20 


JI 


XII 


1 


Ill 


XIII 


12 


IV 


XIV 


23 


V , 


XV 


4 


VI 


XVI 


15 


VII 


XVII 


26 


VIII 


XVIII 


7 


IX 


XIX 


18 


X 









The earliest day on which the Paschal Moon can begin 
is March the 8th. On reference to the reformed Lunar 
Calendar, we find that the Epact for March the 8th is xxiii, 
and from the above schedule it appears that xxiii is the 
Epact for the year of which XIV is the Golden Number. 
The moon which begins on the 8th day of March is full on 
the 21st day of March, the proper letter of which is C. 
Set down XIV, and in the same line with it on the right, 
March 21st, C. Thus : 

XIV— March 21st— C. 

The Epact for the year next less than xxiii is xxii, and 
the Golden Number for the same year is III. From the 
reformed Lunar Calendar we learn that xxii is the Epact 
for the 9th day of March, the Paschal Moon being conse- 
quently full on the 22d day of March, the proper letter of 
which is D. As the 22d day of March is next in order to 
the 21st, write the result immediately under the first line 
of the Table, without an intervening space. Thus : 

XIV- March 21st— C. 
Ill— March 22d— D. 



202 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

The Epact for the year next less than xxii is xx, and the 
Golden Number corresponding to it is XI. From the 
reformed Lunar Calendar it appears that xx is the Epact 
for the 11th day of March, showing that the Paschal Moon 
is full in that year on the 24th of March, the proper letter 
of which is F. As the 24th of March is the next day but 
one to the 22d, write first for the third line of the Table, 
under III, March 23d — E, and immediately under it XI — 
March 24th, F. The Table will then stand thus : 

XIV— March 21st— C. 

Ill— " 22d— D. 

— " 23d — E. 

XI— " 24th— F. 

Proceed in the same way with the other Epacts ; taking 
successively, for each new line of the Table, the Epact 
which is next less than that of the year which immediately 
preceded it, until you come to the symbol * ; setting down 
in each instance the Golden Number, the day of the Pas- 
chal full moon, and the week-day letter ; being careful to 
write the day of the Paschal full moon in the same line 
with the Golden Number, and to refer the intervening day, 
if any, to the line next preceding. Having descended in 
this way to the symbol •, take then the highest Epact, 
which in the present case is 28, and descend, as before, till 
you come to the Epact (in the present case 25), which is 
next greater than the Epact 23 with which you began. 
You will then have exhausted all the Epacts for the Pas- 
chal Moon which can occur between 1700 and 1899 ; begin- 
ning with xxiii, which is the Epact for March the 8th, and 
ending with xxv, which is the Epact for April the 5th. 
The moon which begins on April the 5th is full on April 
the 18th ; and as April the 18th may happen to be Sunday, 
in which case Easter day will fall on the Sunday after, you 



TABLES FROM 1900 TO 2199. 203 

continue the days of the month from April 18th to April 
2 j i:h, giving only the letters proper to the several days. 
Thus the first Table to find Easter is seen to consist of the 
Epacts as readjusted to the Golden Numbers by the Gre- 
gorian reformers. 

" Another Table to find Easter until 1899, inclusive/' is 
formed on the same principle as the first Table ; the differ- 
ence being that in the first Table the compilers follow the 
order of the Epacts, and in the second the order of the 
Golden Numbers. 

After this we have "A Table to find Easter from the 
" year 1900 to the year 2199, inclusive." The design of the 
Calendar is that in the year 1900 the Table now in use 
should be set aside, and that the Table from 1900 to 2199 
should take its place. The heading will then be " A Table 
" to find Easter day from the present time till the year 
" 2199, inclusive ; " and the explanations and directions 
belonging to the present Table will be transferred mutatis 
mutandis to the new Table. 

This Table will also contain the rule to find the Domini- 
cal Letter until the year 2199, which will then stand sub- 
stantially as follows : 

" To find the Dominical or Sunday Letter, according to 
" the Calendar, until the year 2099, inclusive, 
" add to the year of our Lord its fourth part, 
" omitting fractions ; divide the sum less 1 
" by 7, and if there be no remainder, then 
" A is the Sunday Letter ; but if any number 
" remain, then the letter standing against that 
" number in the small annexed Table is the Sunday Letter. 

" For the century next following the above named, that 
" is, from the year 2100 till the year 2199, inclusive, add to 






A 


1 


G 


2 


F 


3 


E 


4 


D 


5 


C 


6 


B 



204 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 



" the current year its fourth part, omitting fractions ; divide 
" the sum less 2 by 7, and proceed as in the last rule." 

For the rationale of this process of finding the Dominical 
Letter, see above pages 163, 164 

As there are now two Tables in our Prayer Book to find 
Easter from the present time until the year 1899, so in the 
next century there will be two Tables to find Easter from 
the year 1900 until 2199. It is superfluous for us to 
exhibit both these Tables ; the second of them will stand 
as follows : 

A Table to find Easter Day from the yeab 1900 till the year 
2199, inclusive. 



GOXDEN 
NUMBER. 



I 

n 

m 

IV..... 

v 

VI 

VII . 

vni... 
IX 

X 

XI 

XII... 

xni.. 

XIV... 

xv... 

XVI.. 

xvn... 
xvui. 

XIX.. 



Sunday Letters. 



16 April 
9 April 

26 March 

16 April 
2 April 

23 April 
9 April 
2 April 

23 April 
9 April 

26 March 

16 April 
9 April 

26 March 

16 April 
2 April 

23 April 
9 April 
2 April 



18 

4 

28 ' 

18 

4 

25 

11 

4 

18 

11 

28 

18 

4 

28 

11 

4 

18 

11 

28 March 



| March 



21 

7 

14 

7 

21 

14- 

31 

21 

31 

14 

7 

24 

14 

31 March 

21 

14 

31 



15 - 

1 April 



1 April 
15 



25 

15 

1 April 

22 

8 

1 April 



To make use of the preceding Table, find the Sunday Letter for the 
year in the uppermost line, and the Golden Number in the column of 
Golden Numbers, and against the Golden Number in the same line 
under the Sunday Letter you have the day of the month on which 
Easter falleth that year. But 

Note that the name of the month is set on the left hand, or just with 
the figure, and followeth not by descent, as in other Tables, but colla- 
terally. 



EASTER FROM 22 00 TO 22 99. 



205 



When " A Table to find Easter day for the year 1900 to 
" the year 2199, inclusive," shall have become "A Table to 
" find Easter day from the present time until the year 
" 2199, inclusive/' our Calendar authorizes and directs us 
how to construct a new Table, which is to be headed, 
" A Table to find Easter day from the year 2200 to the 

" year , inclusive/' How is the blank to be filled up ? 

and in what order are the Golden Numbers then to be set ? 

The reason why the former Table extended from 1900 to 
2199 is, that in the year 1900 the solar equation must be 
made, which consists in diminishing the Epacts by unity. 
Thenceforward, for reasons explained in Chapter XIII, there 
will be no change in the line of Epacts until the year 2199. 
In the year 2200, however, the solar equation must again 
be made, and as the same equation must also be made in 
the year 2300, the new Table will be « A Table to find 
" Easter from the year 2200 to the year 2299, inclusive/' 

After what has been said, the way of forming the Table 
is sufficiently apparent. From 2200 to 2299 the Golden 
Numbers and Epacts will stand as follows : 



Golden Numbers. 


Epacts. 


Golden Numbers. 


Epacts. 


I 


28 


XI 


18 








II 


9 


XII 


29 








Ill 


20 


XIII 


10 








IV 


1 


XIV 


21 








V 


12 


XV 


2 








VI 


23 


XVI 


13 








VII 


4 


XVII 


24 








VIII 


15 


XVIII 


5 








IX 


26 


XIX 


16 








X 


7 







206 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 



And proceeding in the same way as was explained in the 
construction of the first Table, we obtain the following 
result : 
A Table to find Easter Day from the year 2200 to the year 

2299, INCLUSIVE. 



Golden Numbers. 


Days of the 
month. 


Sunday 
Letters. 


Golden Numbers. 


Days of the Sunday 
month. Letters. 


VI 


March 21 


C 


XVIII 


April 8 G 












22 


D 


VII 


9 


A 








XIV 


23 


E 




10 


B 






Ill 


24 


F 


XV 


11 


c 










25 


G 


IV 


12 


D 








XI 


26 


A 




13 


E 








27 


B 


XII 


14 


F 








XIX 


28 


C 


I 


15 


G 








VIII 


29 


D 




16 


A 








30 


E 


IX 


17 


B 








XVI 


31 


F 


XVII 


18 


c 






V 


April 1 


G 




19 


D 








2 


A 




20 


E 


XIII 


3 


B 




21 


F 


II 


4 


C 




22 


G 








5 


D 




23 


A 


X 


6 


E 




24 


B 








7 


F 




25 


C 



We are thrown next on that wilderness of figures which 
constitute the second and third of our " General Tables." 
In the particular Tables for finding Easter, we are in- 
structed how the Golden Numbers are to be set until the 
year 2199, and the object of these two General Tables is to 
direct us how they are to be set for all time to come. In 



GENERAL TABLES II AND III. 



207 



some centuries these numbers are to be set a line lower 
than they had previously stood, and in other centuries a 
line higher, and the design of these General Tables is to 
authorize and direct whatever changes of this kind may be 
required for future ages ; so that there shall never be a 
necessity for going outside the Prayer Book Calendar, but 
that the authority for making all needful changes shall be 
contained in the Calendar itself. 

The rules thus given are arbitrary, that is to say, they 
contain no hint of the principles on which they are formed. 
This, of course, was unavoidable, it being necessarily the 
design of the statute to make rules and explain their mode 
of operation, but not to justify them or develope their 

Table II. 



Years 
of our 
Lord. 



B 


1633 




1700 




1800 




1900 


B 


2003 




2100 




2200 




2300 


B 


2100 




2503 




2600 




2700 


B 


2830 




2903 




3000 




3100 


B 


3200 




3300 




3400 




3500 


B 


3600 




3703 




3833 




3900 


B 


4030 




4100 




4200 




4300 


B 


4403 




4500 




4300 




4703 


B 


4830 




4900 




5000 




5100 



8 

9 
10 
10 
10 
11 
12 
12 
12 
13 
13 
14 I 
14 
14 
15 
16 



1 


2 


3 




Years 






of our 






Lord. 




B 


5200 


15 




5300 


16 




5400 


17 




5500 


17 


B 


5600 


17 




5700 


18 




5800 


18 




5900 


19 


B 


6000 


19 




6100 


19 




6200 


20 




6300 


21 


B 


6400 


20 




6500 


21 




6600 


22 




6700 


23 


B 


6800 


22 




6900 


23 




7000 


24 




7100 


24 


B 


7200 


24 




7300 


25 




,7400 


25 




7500 


26 


B 


7600 


26 


i 


7700 


26 




7800 


27 




7900 


28 


1 B 


8000 


27 


I 


8100 


28 




8200 


29 


1 


8300 


29 


B 


8400 


29 


1 


8500 





i 


&c. 


1 

) 



T^O find the month and days of the month to which 
-^ the Golden Numbers ought to be prefixed in 
the Calendar in any given year of our Lord, consist- 
ing of entire hundred years, and in all the interme- 
diate years betwixt that and the next hundredth 
year following, look in the second column of Table 
II for the given year, consisting of entire hundreds ; 
and note the number or cypher which stands against 
it in the third column ; then in Table III look for 
the same number in the column under any given 
Golden Number, which when you have found, guide 
your eye sideways to the left hand, and in the first 
column you will find the month and day to which 
that Golden Number ought to be prefixed in the 
Calendar, during that period of one hundred years. 

The Letter B, prefixed to certain hundredth years 
in Table II, denotes those years which are still to 
be accounted Bissextile or Leap Years in the new 
Calendar ; whereas all the other hundredth years are 
to be accounted only common years. 



208 



THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 



Table in. 



Paschal 


Mi 

32 h3 












THE GOLDEN NUMBERS. 




Full 
























Moon. 


1 


2 


3 


U 


5 


\ 


' 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 
9 


13 



20 


lh 

1 


15 
12 


16 

_ 

23 


17 
4 


f 

15 


19 


Mar. 21 


C 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 


17 


28 


20 


22 


D 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 


26 


7 


18 


29 


10 


21 


2 


13 


24 


5 


16 


27 


23 


E 


10 


21 


2 


13 


24 


5 


16 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 


17 


28 


24 


F 


11 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 


17 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 


20 


7 


IS 


29 


25 


G 


12 


23 


4 


15 


26 


7 


18 


29 


10 


21 


2 


13 


24 

25 


5 




16 
17 


27 
28 


8 
9 


19 
20 





26 


A 


13 


24 


5 


16 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


1 


27 


B 


14 


25 


6 


17 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 


26 




18 


29 


10 


21 


2 


28 





15 


26 


7 


18 


29 


10 


21 


2 


13 


24 


5 


lfi 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


29 


D 


16 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 


IT 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


30 


E 


17 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 


26 


7 


18 
19 


29 




10 
11 


21 
22 


2 

3 


13 


24 


5 


31 


F 


18 


29 


10 


21 


2 


13 


24 


5 


16 


27 


8 


14'25 


6 


April 1 


G 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 


17 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 26 


7 


2 


A 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 


26 


7 


18 


29 


10 


21 





13 


24 


5 


16 27 


H 


3 


B 


21 


2 


13 


24 


5 


16 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 


17 28 


9 


4 


C 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 
7 


17 
18 


28 
29 


9 
10 


20 
21 


1 

2 


12 
13 


23 
24 


4 
1 


16 


26 

27 


7 


18 29 


10 


5 


D 


23 


4 


15 


26 


19 





11 


6 


E 


24 


5 


16 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


25 





17 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


7 


F 


25 


6 


17 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 


20 


7 


18 


29 


10 


21 


2 


13 


8 


G 


26 


7 


18 


29 


10 


21 


2 


13 


24 


5 


16 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


9 


A 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 


17 


28 
29 


9 

10 


20 
21 


1 
2 


1? 

13 


23 
24 


4 

5 


15 


10 


B 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 


26 


7 


18 


16 


11 


C 


29 


10 


21 


2 


13 


24 





16 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 


17 


12 


1) 





11 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 


17 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 


26 


7 


18 


13 


E 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 


26 


7 


18 


29 


10 


21 


2 


13 


24 


5 


16 


27 


8 


19 


14 


F 


2 


13 


24 


5 


16 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 
4 


14 
- 
15 


26 





17 

18 


28 
29 


10 


20 


15 


G 


3 


14 


25 


6 


17 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


21 


16 


A 


4 


15 


26 


7 


18 


29 


10 


21 


2 


13 


24 


5 


10 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


17 


B 


- 5 


16 


27 


8 


19 





11 


22 


3 


14 


25 


6 


17 


58 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


17 


B 

C 
























8 


18 

n 


29 



10 


22 


2 

3 


13 24 


18 


6 


17 


28 


9 


20 


1 


12 


23 


4 


15 


26 




18 


C 


7 


18 


29 


10 


21 


2 


13 


24 


5 


16 


27 


14 


. 



theory. To this end we must look outside of our English 
Calendar ; but if the reader has followed us in what we 
have said in a previous chapter in explanation of the Gre- 
gorian reform, he will readily take in not only the direc- 
tions which are given in these two General Tables, but the 
reasons on which these directions are founded. [For Table 
I, v. supra, Chap. XIV. Tables II and III are as above.] 
The first of these Tables contains a period of eight thou- 
sand five hundred years, because in that time there will 
have been a complete revolution of the Epacts ; and as in 
every century in which a solar or lunar equation is to be 
made, there will be a change in the line of Epacts, so we 
have in Table II thirty numbers (including the cipher after 



GOLDEN NUMBERS — NEW STYLE. 209 

29) corresponding to the different lines of Epacts in the 
Expanded Table, and varying for different centuries as the s 
use of these lines varies. Thus as the year 1600 (after the 
ten days had been expunged from the Old Style) was the 
first century of the new era, and no equation was made in 
it, a cipher is set opposite to it. In 1700 we descend one 
line in the Expanded Table and continue to use the same 
line for the century following ; and accordingly 1 is set 
opposite to 1700 and 1800. In 1900 we descend another 
line (2 in all) and continue to use the same line for the next 
two centuries ; and accordingly 2 is set opposite to 1900, 
2000, and 2100. In the year 2200 we descend to the third 
line below that from which we started in 1600, and accord- 
ingly the number 3 is set opposite to 2200. In 2300 we 
descend to the fourth line and opposite to it is the number 
4. In each one of these cases, that is to say, in 1700, 1900, 
2200, and 2300, the solar equation is made which requires 
the Golden Numbers to be set one line lower ; but in the 
year 2400 the lunar equation is to be made which requires 
the same numbers to be set one line higher ; and hence 
opposite to 2400 in the second General Table is the number 
3 ; which means that in 2400 we are to go back and set the 
Golden Numbers in our Tables for finding Easter as they 
stood in the year 2200. And so the Table proceeds ; — 
changing the number opposite to the century only when 
there is a change in the line of the Epacts, and increasing 
or diminishing the numbers accordingly as we descend or 
ascend in the Expanded Table — until the thirty Epacts, or 
rather the thirty figures which in our " General Tables " 
represent them, are exhausted. The Table, therefore, takes 
account of all the solar and lunar equations for as many 
centuries as will embrace a complete revolution of the 
Epacts 



210 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

The first column of the third General Table contains 
all the days on which the Paschal Term can fall, and the 
directions in the first General Table explain the way in 
which the two Tables are to be used. For example : in the 
first Table opposite to 2200 we find the figure 3, which 
shows that in the beginning of that century the Golden 
Numbers are to be set two lines lower than they now stand. 
In the other Table we find 3 under the Golden Number 
VI in the same line with March 21st, and under XIY in 
the same line with March 23d. One thing, however, the 
Rule has omitted, which it is important to note, viz., that 
when the figure taken from Table II is not found in Table 
III under any Golden Number in the line parallel with the 
day of the month, then this day must be placed under the 
same Golden Number as the day preceding. 

The object, then, of these Tables is, as we have said, to 
let us know at the beginning of every century whether any, 
and, if any, what change is to be made so as to keep the 
solar and lunar time in agreement. The peculiarity of our 
method is that instead of saying that the solar time is to 
be kept in harmony with the Epacts or age of the moon, 
the word Epact is put under a ban and the Golden Num- 
bers of the old Calendar are still retained, and we are 
charged to see to it that at the beginning of every century 
they are duly adjusted to the Paschal Term. 

There can be no doubt that the framers of the Act (24 
George II) which we have been considering, thoroughly 
understood their subject ; and it is equally fair to presume 
that as wise legislators they were resolved not to sacrifice 
utility to theory ; to attempt nothing impracticable, but to 
content themselves with establishing the reform they had 
undertaken, not simply in the best way, but in the best 
way which was likely to meet with general acceptance. 
14 



THE BEST REFORM PRACTICABLE. 211 

They knew the temper of their times ; and if they thought 
the Gregorian Epacts would be considered to be a badge of 
popery, and that the adoption or rather (for adopted they 
were) the public recognition of them would lead men 
otherwise intelligent to reject the proposed reform, what 
better could they do than they have done ? With no other 
knowledge than I have of the history of the times, I am not 
disposed to judge the British reformers of the Calendar 
harshly, or to censure them for what they have done. On 
the contrary, I am grateful to them for their labours, and 
for giving us the best measure of reform which the times 
permitted. Certainly, however, if I supposed that they 
themselves were of the opinion that their use of the Golden 
Numbers and their complicated Tables, particular and 
general, for shifting them from century to century, excelled 
the simplicity of the Gregorian system which had been 
ready to their hands for more than a hundred years, I 
should hold them in very different estimation. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Dependence of History on the truth of the Mosaic Record — Dependence 
of civilized nations on the Calendar of the Church — Instanced in the 
abortive attempt of the French Republic to substitute in its place the 
Calendar of Reason — Report of La Place — Remarks on the Report — 
Conclusion. 

THE truth of the Mosaic record has been of late years 
impugned by two very different classes of persons ; 
first by those who are unable to reconcile the credibility of 
the record to the recent discoveries of Geology ; and sec- 
ondly by various theorists who fancy that they can account 
for the origin of the universe without the fiat of the Creator. 

To the former we reply that Kevelation confirmed by 
supernatural evidence — such as Miracles and Prophecy, the 
main pillars of the Christian fabric — cannot be contradicted 
by natural facts, for the obvious reason that the superna- 
tural works and the natural have the same God for their 
author. Kevelation, therefore, and true science are always 
and of necessity in harmony ; and whensoever a seeming 
repugnance exists, time will show, as it has often shown, 
that the repugnance is really between the interpreters of 
revelation and the expounders of science ; for both are fal- 
lible, and either the former puts a wrong construction on 
the revelation, or the latter gives us hypothesis for facts. 
Eeligion has nothing to fear from true science ; and science, 
while it faithfully interprets nature, cannot cross religion, 
and may minister to her ends. 

To the latter class of persons it is enough to say that the 
words " In the beginning God created the heavens and the 



THE MOSAIC RECORD. 213 

" earth " were dictated by God himself to save them, if 
they accept the truth, from the folly and guilt of ascribing 
the origin of the universe to spontaneous " evolution " and 
" effort ; " a theory which, if it should find general accept- 
ance, would serve to show that with all our boast of 
" progress/' the childhood of our race has not yet ripened 
into manhood. For the advocates of this and its kindred 
theories really move in the same plane with Democritus 
and Epicurus, who had need of a first-class poet to keep 
their memories alive even among Pagans ; or with the later 
peripatetics who, arguing from the axiom — true only in 
nature — Ex nihilo nihil Jit, taught the eternity of matter ; 
ignorant of the sublime fact which nature could never dis- 
cover, but which holy Scripture reveals, that "In the 
" beginning " — before time was — " God created the heavens 
and the earth." * 

In fact, however, and this is the point to which I wish to 
draw the reader's attention, let men argue and speculate as 
wantonly as they will, they can no more escape from the 
Word of God than from His presence ; for He has made 
the truth of the Mosaic record a necessary condition of 
their culture and advancement. It is reasonable for all 
men, says a modern authority which cannot be suspected 
of undue partiality for the Scriptures, to accept the Mosaic 
account of the creation. " But an historian," he adds, 
" is under an absolute necessity of doing so, because with- 
" out it he is destitute of any standard, or scale, by which 
" he can reduce the chronology of different nations to agree- 
" ment ; indeed without receiving this account as true, it 

* In common, as he believes, with all churchmen, the author is happy to 
have an opportunity to express his obligations to Dr. McCosh, the distin- 
guished President of Princeton College, for his late luminous exposure 
and triumphant refutation of the Atheistic theories referred to in the 
text. 



214 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

" would be in a manner impossible at this day to write a 
" general history of the world." * 

And as the Church under the Mosaic dispensation gave 
not to one nation only, but to all mankind, a standard of 
chronology which enables us to bring the materials of his- 
tory out of darkness and confusion into light and order, so 
does the same Church, under the Christian dispensation, 
pursue even those who flee from her, and incline them, as it 
were, by a sort of providential compulsion, to accept analo- 
gous benefits at her hands. 

A Calendar for the measurement and distribution of 
time is a necessity for every civilized nation, and it appears 
from what has been said already that all nations in Europe 
and America have received their Calendar from the Chris- 
tian Church. I venture to add that so dependent are these 
nations on the Church in this matter, so interwoven are 
their interests and convenience with her labours, that not 
one of them can create and bring into established use any 
other Calendar than that which the Church has bestowed 
on them. An example of this dependence, well known but 
perhaps not enough considered, offers itself as a fitting con- 
clusion for our review of the Church Calendar. 

The Eevolution of 1792 in France was carried forward in 
part by men who shrank from its horrors, and were ani- 
mated with an honest and patriotic desire to get rid of 
intolerable abuses, and to reform society on new and better 
principles. These were men of generous instincts and of 
lofty and highly cultivated genius. They were, however, 
republicans in government and, unhappily, infidels in reli- 
gion ; and instead of accepting prescriptive institutions and 
endeavouring to amend them, they impatiently rejected, and 

* Encyclopedia Britannica, seventh edition, article " History." 



THE CALENDAR OF REASON. . 215 

sought to pull them down in the fallacious hope that they 
could build up new and better structures in their stead. 
They would reconstruct society upon what they considered 
to be " philosophic principles ; " which simply means that 
they would follow their own wisdom or that of the age in 
which they lived, without steadying themselves by the 
judgment and experience of the past. 

In this spirit the men of the Revolution, among other 
radical changes, abolished the Calendar of the Church and 
set up the " Calendar of Keason " in its place. The Calen- 
dar of the Church was cast away as the growth of supersti- 
tion ; the Calendar of Keason was ushered in that the 
French people, and after their example all mankind, might 
learn to measure and distribute time without the help of 
tradition and agreeably to the dictates of reason and philo- 
sophy. The year in the new Calendar was made to begin 
with the 22d day of September, the day of the autumnal , 
equinox, which chanced also to be the day on which the 
French Kepublic was founded ; a day that would thus 
become, it was hoped, the epoch of a new and glorious era 
which would perpetuate the memory of the Kepublic after 
the Christian era had become obsolete. The three hundred 
and sixty days were divided into months of thirty days 
each, and each month in turn into decades, with a view to 
the advantages of the decimal notation for the smaller 
divisions of time. The decadery days, that is to say, the 
first days of the several decades, were dedicated with such 
show of religion as unassisted reason could inspire, the first 
to Nature and the Supreme Being, the second to the human 
race, the third to the French people, the fourth to the bene- 
factors of humanity, the fifth to the martyrs of liberty, the 
sixth to liberty and equality, the seventh to the Kepublic, 
the eighth to the liberty of mankind, the ninth to the love 



216 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

of our country, and the tenth to the hatred of tyrants ; 
those from the eleventh to the twenty-sixth were dedicated 
to various virtues, real or fictitious ; and the remainder to 
infancy, youth, manhood, etc., unto the thirty-sixth, which 
was dedicated to prosperity. The intercalary or comple- 
mentary days, vulgarly known as the Sans Culottides, viz., 
the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st, to which in leap-years 
was added the 22d of September, were dedicated to virtue, 
to genius, to labour, etc. ; making in all forty-one and in 
leap-years forty-two gala days which were set apart for the 
rest and merriment of the Decadists, instead of the fifty- 
two Lord's days which were still clung to by the Domini- 
cans ; as the followers of the new and the old mode of 
reckoning were respectively called. 

Such, omitting its more fantastic features, is the Calen- 
dar of Reason constructed by the illustrious philosophers 
of the French Republic to supplant the Calendar of the 
Church. It was presented to the Convention on the 5th 
of October, 1793, and having been duly ratified was first 
used on November 24th of the same year. It was little 
more than the bauble of a day. On the 31st of December, 
1805, in compliance with the report of the celebrated La 
Place, who was at the head of the Commission to which the 
subject was referred, the Calendar of Reason was abrogated 
and the Calendar of the Church was restored ; the decades 
were abolished and the Lord's day resumed the place as- 
signed to it by the Church. The motives which induced 
the government to retreat from its infidel position and to 
re-establish the Calendar of the Church are given in the 
following Report of La Place to the Senate, the translation 
of which is taken from Ree's Cyclopedia : 

Senators — The project of the Senatus Consultum which 
was presented to you in the last sitting, and on which you 



REPORT OF LA PLACE. 217 

are going to deliberate, has for its object the restoration in 
France of the Gregorian Calendar, reckoning from the first 
of January, 1806. It is not necessary at present to ermine 
which of all the Calendars possible is the most natural and 
the most simple ; we shall only say that it is neither the 
one we are about to abandon, nor that which we propose to 
resume. The orator of Government has explained to you 
with great care their inconveniences and disadvantages. 
The principal fault of the present Calendar is its intercala- 
tion. By fixing the commencement of the year at the 
midnight which at the Observatory of Paris precedes the 
true autumnal equinox, it fulfils, indeed, in the most rigor- 
ous manner, the condition of constantly attaching to the 
same season the origin of the year ; but then they cease to 
be periods of regular time easy to be decomposed into days, 
which must occasion confusion in chronology, already too 
much embarrassed by the multitude of eras. Astronomers, 
to whom this defect is very sensible, have several times 
requested a reformation of it. Before the first bissextile 
year was introduced into the new Calendar, they proposed 
to the Committees of Public Instruction of the National' 
Convention to adopt a regular intercalation, and their de- 
mand was favorably received. At that period the convention 
returned to good principles ; and employing itself with in- 
struction and the progress of knowledge, showed to the 
learned a deference and consideration, the remembrance of 
which they retain. They will always recollect, with lively 
gratitude, that several of its members, by a noble devotion, 
in the midst of the storms of the revolution, preserved from 
total destruction the monuments of the sciences and the 
arts. Komme, the principal author of the new Calendar, 
convoked several men of letters ; he drew up, in concert 
with them, the project of a law, by which a regular mode 
of intercalation was substituted for the mode before estab- 
lished ; but involved a few days after in a horrid event, he 
perished, and his project of a law was abandoned. It 
would, however, be necessary to recur to it, if we preserved 
the present Calendar ; which being thereby changed in one 
of its most essential elements, would present the irregularity 
of a first bissextile placed in a third year. The suppres- 
sion of the decades made it experience a more considerable 
change. They gave the facility of finding every moment of 
time of the month ; but at the end of each year the com- 
plementary days disturbed the order of things attached to 
the different days of the decade, which then rendered admi- 



218 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

nistrative measures necessary. The use of a small period 
independent of months and years, such as the week, obvi- 
ates this inconvenience ; and already that period has heen 
re-established in France ; which since the highest antiquity, 
in which its origin is lost ; circulates without interruption 
through centuries, mingling with the successive Calendars 
of different nations. 

But the greatest inconvenience of our new Calendar is 
the embarrassment which it produces in our foreign rela- 
tions, by insulating us, in that respect, in the midst of 
Europe ; which would always exist, for we ought not to 
hope that this Calendar can ever be universally admitted. 
Its epoch relates merely to our history ; the moment when 
its year commences is placed in a disadvantageous manner, 
as it participates in, and divides between, two years the 
same operations and the same labours ; it has inconve- 
niences which would be introduced into civil life, as the 
day begins at noon according to the usage of astronomers. 
Besides, this custom would relate only to the meridian of 
Paris. In seeing others reckon the longitude from their 
principal observatories, can it be believed that they would 
all agree in referring to the commencement of our year ? 
Two centuries were necessary, and the whole influence of 
religion, to cause the Gregorian Calendar to be generally 
adopted. It is in this universality, so desirable and so dif- 
ficult to be attained, and which it is of importance to pre- 
serve when it is acquired, that its greatest advantage con- 
sists. This Calendar is now that of almost all the nations 
of Europe and America. It was a long time that of France ; 
at present it regulates our religious festivals, and it is ac- 
cording to it that we reckon our centuries. It no doubt 
has several considerable defects. The length of its months 
is unequal and whimsical, the origin of the year does not 
correspond to any of the seasons ; but it answers very well 
the principal object of a Calendar, by being easily decom- 
posed into days, and retaining nearly the commencement of 
the mean year at the same distance from the equinoxes. 
Its mode of intercalation is convenient and simple. It is 
reduced, as is well known, to the intercalation of a bissextile 
every four years ; the suppression of it at the end of each 
century for three consecutive centuries in order to re-esta- 
blish it at the fourth ; and if, by following this analogy, we 
still suppress a bissextile every four thousand years, it will 
be founded on the true length of the year. But even in its 
present state, forty centuries would be necessary to remove, 



NATURAL AND POSITIVE LAW. 219 

only by one day, the origin of the mean year from its real 
origin. The French mathematicians, therefore, have never 
ceased to object to their astronomical table ; become, by 
their extreme precision, the base of the ephemerides of all 
enlightened nations. 

One might be afraid that the return of the old Calendar 
might be followed by the re-establishment of the old mea- 
sures. But the orator of Government has taken care to 
dispel that fear. Like him, I am persuaded, that instead 
of re-establishing the prodigious number of different mea- 
sures which prevailed in France and shackled its interior 
commerce, Government, fully convinced of the utility of an 
uniform system of measures, will take the most effectual 
means for accelerating the use of them, and for overcoming' 
the resistance still opposed to it by old habits, which are 
already disappearing every day. From these considerations 
your Commission unanimously proposes the adoption of the 
Senatus Consultum presented by the Government. t 

Considering the source from which it came, and the cir- 
cumstances under which it was made, the Report of the 
Commission is a significant and valuable testimony to the 
merits of the Church Calendar. The two objections to the 
Calendar — for only two are specified — are trifling, and seem 
to be introduced only because something of the sort was 
demanded by the occasion. The first objection is to the 
unequal and whimsical length of the months ; to which it 
suffices to answer that the month holds its place in the 
Calendar by sufferance, and is an element which is not used 
for the attainment of any of its distinctive ends. The other 
is that " the origin of the year does not correspond to any 
" of the seasons ; " an objection which is virtually neutral- 
ized by the fact stated in the same sentence that it is put 
" nearly " at the time of the winter solstice. On the other 
hand, the admission that the attempt to introduce the 
decimal division was fruitless, being of necessity defeated 
by the complementary days at the end of the year ; and 
the preference for the week of seven days for a reason the 



220 THE CHURCH CALENDAR. 

very reverse of that which led to the adoption of the decade, 
viz., that it was " independent of months and years/' that 
is, did not measure them as the decade was intended to do ; 
and for the further reason that the week, " since the high- 
" est antiquity, in which its origin is lost, circulates without 
"interruption through centuries, mingling with the suc- 
" cessive Calendars of different nations," deserve to be noted 
and remembered. The law of nature points us to the year 
in the measurement of time, while the positive law of God 
enjoins on us also the week. Had the year consisted of 
three hundred and sixty-four days, the week would have 
fitted into it beautifully, and the philosophers would have 
been satisfied. But the one day with its supervening hours, 
minutes and seconds, made the week absolutely incommen- 
surable with the year. Hence they who follow nature alone 
have always grumbled at the week, and cherished the vision- 
ary hope of getting rid of it and substituting in its place 
some small but more tractable period ; if possible one that 
would exactly measure the year. The Church, however, 
accepted both the natural and the positive law, and set 
herself, as in duty bound, to overcome the obstacle which 
their seeming repugnance interposed ; and, curiously enough, 
the very stone at which the wise ones of the world stum- 
bled, was made by her the foundation of the system of 
chronology, by which mankind now, with one consent, 
measure the intervals of history, and refer all events, sacred 
and profane, to definite points of time. And when the 
Church had completed her labours and shown men, by 
means of the Solar Cycle and the reformed Calendar, how 
the week conspires with the year for the perpetual adjust- 
ment and distribution of time, she must, of course, be infi- 
nitely obliged to the eminent philosopher who informs her 
that the distinctive excellence of the week consists in its 



THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 221 

not being the aliquot part of a year ; and that it is in 
virtue of this very peculiarity that the week " circulates/' 
as God intended it should, " without interruption through 
" centuries, mingling with the successive Calendars of dif- 
" ferent nations." 

On the whole, the history of the Calendar of Keason, its 
pompous inauguration, and its inglorious failure, brings 
out, in more vivid colours, the harmony, on the subject 
under consideration, of the natural and positive law of 
God ; makes dearer to us than ever the Lord's day and 
the week which is bound up with it ; and renders more 
impressive the fact, that even they who refuse the guidance 
of the Church of Christ in the concerns of Eternity, are 
nevertheless constrained to follow her lead in the regulation 
and distribution of Time. 

&6%a tc5 Qe&. 



APPENDIX 



rFlHE following Tables, showing the month and day of 
-*- the month on which Easter will fall (according to the 
New Style) in every year from 1900 to 1999 ? and from 2200 
to 2299, have been prepared by William Moore, Esquire, 
the author of the " Demonstration of Gauss's Formula," 
given above, p. 186. They agree with the Easter-days 
which may be obtained from our General Tables, or directly 
from the Gregorian Tables ; but the application of Gauss's 
Formula (facilitated by Mr. Moore's new and original meth- 
od) will be found in some cases (for example, A. D. 2285,) 
to reveal curious results. 

For the explanation of the method referred to, see above 
pp. 185, 186. 



APPENDIX. 



223 



TABLE I. 



List of Easters for 100 years from 1900 to 1999, inclusive, by 
Mr. Moore's application of Gauss's Formula. 









« 






1 




K 












*r 














£T 














+ 














+ 














« 






MONTH. 








^ 






MONTH. 






-53 


+ 


f 






u 




•8 
| 


+ 


t- 






eg 






i© 








SJ 




1 


rO 











•8 


t- 


<?* 


^> 






'e 




c* 


^i 




1900 


24 


4 


3 





15 April. 


1951 


1 


6 


3 


2 


•25 March. 


1 


13 


1 


2 


3 


7 


*52 


20 


1 


1 


2 


13 April. 


2 


2 


5 


1 


6 


*30 March. 


53 


9 


5 





5 


5 ' k 


3 


21 











12 April. 


54 


28 





6 


6 


18 " 


*4 


10 


4 


5 


2 


3 


55 


17 


4 


5 


2 


10 " 


5 


29 


6 


i 


3 


23 " 


*56 


6 


1 


3 


4 


1 


6 


18 


3 


3 


6 


*15 " 














7 


7 





2 


2 


31 March. 


1957 


24 


4 


2 


6 


*21 April. 


*8 


26 


2 





2 


19 April. 


58 


13 


1 


1 


2 


6 '" 


9 


15 


6 


6 


5 


11 " 


59 


2 


5 





5 


29 March. 


10 


4 


3 


5 


1 


27 March. 


*60 


21 





5 


5 


17 April. 


11 


23 


5 


4 


2 


16 April. 


61 


10 


4 


4 


1 


2 " 


*12 


12 


2 


2 


4 


7 " 


62 


29 


6 


3 


2 


22 " 


13 


1 


6 


1 





23 March. 


63 


18 


3 


2 


5 


14 " 


11 


20 


1 





1 


12 April. 


*64 


7 











29 March. 


15 


9 


5 


6 


4 


4 


65 


26 


2 


6 


1 


18 April. 


*16 


28 





4 


4 


23 " 


66 


15 


6 


5 


4 


10 " 


17 


17 


4 


3 





8 


67 


4 


3 


4 





26 March. 


18 


6 


1 


2 


3 


31 March. 


*68 


23 


5 


2 





14 April. 














69 


12 


2 


1 


3 


6 


1919 


24 


4 


1 


5 


20 April. 


70 


1 


6 





6 


*29 March. 


*20 


13 


1 


6 





4 " 


71 


20 


1 


6 





11 April. 


21 


2 


5 


5 


3 


27 March. 


*72 


9 


5 


4 


2 


2 " 


22 


21 





4 


4 


16 April. 


73 


28 





3 


3 


22 " 


23 


10 


4 


3 





1 " 


74 


17 


4 


2 


6 


*14 « 


*24 


29 


6 


1 





20 " 


75 


6 


1 


1 


2 


30 March. 


25 


18 


3 





3 


12 " 














26 


7 





6 


6 


*4 « 


*1976 


24 


4 


6 


3 


18 April. 


27 


26 


2 


5 





17 " 


77 


13 


1 


5 


6 


*10 " 


*28 


15 


6 


3 


2 


8 " 


78 


2 


5 


4 


2 


26 March. 


29 


4 


3 


2 


5 


31 March. 


79 


21 





3 


3 


15 April. 


30 


23 


5 


1 


6 


*20 April. 


*80 


10 


4 


1 


e 


6 " 


31 


12 


2 





2 


5 * 


81 


29 


6 





6 


*19 " 


*32 


1 


6 


5 


4 


27 March. 


82 


18 


3 


6 


2 


11 " 


33 


20 


1 


4 


5 


16 April. 


83 


7 





5 


5 


3 " 


34 


9 


5 


3 


1 


1 " 


*84 


26 


2 


3 


5 


22 " 


35 


28 





2 


2 


21 " 


85 


15 


6 


2 


I 


7 


*38 


17 


4 





4 


12 " 


86 


4 


3 


2 


4 


30 March. 


37 


6 


1 


6 





28 March. 


87 


23 


5 


6 


5 


19 April. 














*88 


12 


2 


5 





3 " 


1938 


24 


4 


5 


2 


17 April. 


89 


1 


6 


4 


3 


26 March. 


39 


13 


1 


4 


5 


9 " 


90 


20 


1 


3 


4 


15 April. 


*40 


2 


5 


2 





24 March. 


91 


9 


5 


2 





31 March. 


41 


21 





1 


1 


13 April. 


*92 


28 











19 April. 


42 


10 


4 





4 


5 


93 


17 


4 


6 


3 


11 " 


43 


29 


6 


6 


5 


25 " 


94 


6 


1 


5 


6 


*3 " 


*44 


18 


3 


4 





9 " 


i 












45 


7 





3 


3 


1 " 


1995 


24 


4 


4 


1 


16 April. 


46 


26 


2 


2 


4 


21 " 


*1996 


13 


1 


2 


3 


7 il 


47 


15 


6 


1 





6 


1997 


2 


5 


1 


6 


*30 March. 


*48 


4 


3 


6 


2 


28 March. 


1998 


21 











12 April. 


49 


23 


5 


5 


3 


17 April. 


1999 


10 


4 


6 


3 


4 " 


1950 


12 


2 


4 


6 


*9 » 















224 



APPENDIX. 



TABLE II 
List of Easters for 100 years from 2200 to 2299, inclusive. 



A. D. 


Golden 
No. 


Epact 


Sunday 
Letter. 


EASTEB. 


1 » -n Golden 
A - U - No. 


Epact 


Sunday 
Letter. 


EASTEB. 


2200 


xvi 


13 


E 


6 April. 


2250 


ix 


26 


F 


21 April. 


1 


xvii 


24 


D 


19 " Ex. 


51 


X 


7 


E 


13 *« 


2 


xviii 


5 


C 


11 " 


52 


xi 


18 


D C 


28 March. 


3 


xix 


16 


B 


3 " 


53 


xii 


29 


B 


17 ApriL 


4 


i 


28 


A G 


22 " 


54 i xiii 


10 


A 


9 " 


5 


ii 


9 


F 


7 " 


55 xiv 


21 


G 


25 March. 


6 


iii 


20 


E 


30 March. 


56 


XV 


2 


F E 


13 April. 


7 


iv 


1 


D 


19 April. 


57 


xvi 


13 


D 


5 •' 


8 


V 


12 


C B 


3 


58 


xvii 


24 


C 


25 " 


9 


vi 


23 


A 


26 March. 


59 


xviii 


5 


B 


10 " 


2210 


vii 


4 


G 


15 April. 
31 March. 


2260 


xix 


16 


A G 


1 


U 


viii 


15 


F 


61 


i 


28 


F 


21 u 


12 


ix 


26 


E D 


19 April. 


62 


ii 


9 


E 


6 


13 


X 


7 


C 


11 " 


63 


iii 


20 


D 


29 March. 


14 


xi 


18 


B 


27 March. 


64 


iv 


1 


C B 


17 April. 


15 


xii 


29 


A 


16 April. 


65 


V 


12 


A 


2 " 


16 


xiii 


10 


G F 


7 


66 


vi 


23 


G 


25 March. 


17 


xiv 


21 


E 


30 March. 


67 


vii 


4 


F 


14 ApriL 


18 


XV 


2 


D 


12 April. 


68 


viii 


15 


E D 


5 ™ 


19 


xvi 


13 


C 


4 


69 


ix 


26 


C 


18 " 


2220 


xvii 


24 


B A 


23 ■* 


2270 


X 


7 


B 


10 " 


21 


xviii 


5 


G 


15 " 


71 


xi 


18 


A 


2 


22 


xix 


16 


F 


31 March. 


72 


xii 


29 


G F 


21 " 


23 


i 


28 


E 


20 April. 


73 


xiii 


10 


E 


6 


24 


ii 


9 


D C 


11 " 


74 


xiv 


21 


D 


29 March. 


25 


iii 


20 


B 


27 March. 


75 


XV 


2 


C 


18 April. 


26 


iv 


1 


A 


16 April. 


76 


xvi 


13 


B A 


2 " 


27 


V 


12 


G 


8 " 


77 


xvii 


24 


G 


22 " 


28 


vi 


23 


F E 


23 March. 


78 


xviii 


5 


F 


14 " 


29 


vii 


4 


D 


12 April. 


79 


xix 


16 


E 


30 March. 


2230 


viii 


15 


C 


4 


2280 


i 


28 


D C 


18 April. 


31 


ix 


26 


B 


24 " 


81 


ii 


9 


B 


10 " 


32 


X 


7 


A G 


8 


82 


iii 


20 


A 


26 March. 


33 


xi 


18 


F 


31 March. 


83 


iv 


1 


G 


15 April. 


34 


xii 


29 


E 


20 April 


84 


V 


12 


F E 


6 " 


35 


xiii 


10 


D 


5 " 


85 


vi 


23 


D 


22 March. 


36 


xiv 


21 


C B 


27 March. 


86 


vii 


4 


C 


11 ApriL 


37 


XV 


2 


A 


16 ApriL 


87 


viii 


15 


B 


3 « 


38 


xvi 


13 


G 


1 " 


88 


ix 


26 


A G 


22 " 


39 


xvii 


24 


F 


21 " 


89 


X 


7 


F 


7 


2240 


xviii 


5 


E D 


12 " 


2290 


xi 


18 


E 


30 March. 


41 


xix 


16 


C 


4 " 


91 


xii 


29 


D 


19 April. 


42 


i 


28 


B 


17 " 


92 


xiii 


10 


C B 


10 " 


43 


ii » 


f 


A 


9 


93 


xiv 


21 


A 


26 March. 


44 


iii 


20 


GF 


31 March. 


94 


xv # 


2 


G 


15 April. 


45 


iv 


1 


E 


13 April. 


95 


xvi 


13 


F 


7 " 


46 


V 


12 


D 


5 " 


96 


xvii 


24 


ED 


19 " Ex. 


47 


vi 


23 


C 


28 March. 


97 


xviii 


5 


C 


11 " 


48 


vii 


4 


B A 


16 April. 


98 


xix 


16 


B 


3 " 


2249 


viii 


15 


G 


1 « 


2299 


i 


28 


A 


16 " 



ADDENDUM 



TO counteract the error of the Lunar Cycle (referred to, 
page 184) 3 and to adjust correctly the Epacts to the 
Golden Numbers, as well before as after the Epoch of the 
reformation, the Gregorian reformers deemed it sufficient 
to add three days to the Calendar on account of the lunar 
equations before 1582 ; viz., one day for the year 800, one 
for the year 1100, and one for the year 1400. This end 
was accomplished by simply deducting three days from the 
ten clays that were cancelled in 1582 on account of the 
precession of the equinoxes, thus making the actual ad- 
vance to be seven days ; and hence it was that the new 
moon of that year, the sixth of the Lunar Cycle, which in 
the Old Style of the Calendar falls on March 28th, is car- 
ried forward in the New Style to the 4th of April. 



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